Our sparkling Adelaide Hills

You don’t have to go France to get great champers. Thirty-two winemakers in the Adelaide Hills are now producing quality sparkling wine using the méthode traditionnelle.

Winemaker Stephen George at Ashton Hills Winery.

When it comes to champagne, there’s a useful rule of thumb: the smaller the bubbles, the better the bubbly. But you don’t have to go all the way to France to raise a flute of top-quality champers. The fact is some of the world’s best producers of méthode traditionnelle sparkling wine are just 20 minutes from the centre of Adelaide.

And, since this is the season of celebrations from Christmas to New Year, a drive through the Hills to sample and select some local bubbles could be a perfect daytrip or even a weekend away, combining the charm of the local towns and retsaurants with some wine tasting.

Lucy Moody is the owner of Somerled Wines. Once upon a time, visitors to her cellar door on Main St, Hahndorf, would ask for Sauvignon Blanc. These days, they’re asking for the 2013 Pinot Noir Méthode Champenoise Single Vineyard – a bottle of sparkling wine priced at a not inconsiderable $42. “Actually we can’t use the term ‘méthode champenoise’ anymore,” she says. “It’s ‘méthode traditionnelle’. But it means the same thing, it refers to the art of making sparkling wine that was originated in the Champagne region of France.”

And indeed it is an art, one that involves a three-stage fermentation process and at the very least, nine months of maturation. It is perfectly distinct from the business of carbonating wine, which leads us to another rule of thumb: if a bottle of sparkling is under $25, it’s probably carbonated or been through a newer ferment process, neither of which can re-create the fine bead and complexity of the méthode traditionnelle.

Five years ago, the Adelaide Hills wine region had fewer than 10 producers who were using the méthode traditionnelle. But in early 2016, Lucy was commissioned to compile a list and found that the number had swollen to 25, making the Adelaide Hills one of the largest méthode champenoise regions in Australia, up there with the Yarra and Tasmania.

Deviation Road winemaker Kate Laurie. Photo: Tom Huntey

Today that number is at 32, making the Adelaide Hills wine region home to the largest number of méthode traditionnelle producers on the mainland. Lucy says she was surprised how quickly it had grown, but puts it down to two factors. “Firstly, the Adelaide Hills region is perfectly suited to growing the two main varieties of grape that go into méthode traditionnelle sparkling wine – Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

“They’re both quick-ripening grapes, which means the sugar levels rise quickly in warmer wine regions. For high quality sparkling, you need to slow it right down, to let the grape grow slowly and evenly so the flavour has a chance to catch up. The Hills climate is perfect for this because we have a longer, colder growing season.”

The second factor is rather more mundane – and that’s the recent arrival of a contract producer in the Adelaide Hills.

Eight years ago, the Lodestone Winery near the small town of Mt Torrens began offering a mechanised service to produce sparkling wine using the otherwise labour-intensive méthode traditionnelle. The méthode process includes instigation (adding yeast and sugar to facilitate an in-bottle secondary fermentation), riddling (periodically turning bottles to accumulate the yeast deposit into the neck) and disgorging and corking (the process that removes the yeast from the bottle).

“Lodestone gave more local winemakers the idea they could do it. They also made it more cost effective: before Lodestone came along, we had to take our sparkling wine either to Barossa or as far away as Victoria.”

Not that Hills winemakers are new to the business made famous by Champagne. Some Hills winemakers have been around bubbles for a long time: Brian Croser is a godfather of the Australian wine industry, founder of the famous Croser label and still based in the Piccadilly Valley (with his label Tappanapa); Kate Laurie at Deviation Road was trained in Champagne and took honours at the Sydney Wine Show for her 2009 Loftia; and Jane Bromley at the Honey Moon Vineyard in Echunga has won more French Champagne awards than you can poke a baguette at.

The Lane Vineyard, Hahndorf

Lucy’s father is Rob Moody, an ex-Penfolds winemaker who worked under Max Schubert in the making of Grange.

“For Dad, it’s about producing a sparkling wine that’s as dry and soft as possible. He’s looking to make it the perfect aperitif – dry enough to get your mouth watering, but without needing it to be drunk with food.”

Hills sparkling wines are not cheap, in fact on average they’re more expensive than their counterparts from the Barossa.

But as Lucy explains, the Adelaide Hills is still a doggedly boutique region, and with the extra time required to process (local producers are increasingly keeping their bottles on lees for a minimum of 15 months) Hills bubbly is strictly a small-batch proposition for buyers. “And people are prepared to pay for that. Because we’re still a region of owner-operators, they know they’re buying it from the winemaker, they know it’s artisan-made and they appreciate getting the whole story behind the wine.”

Lucy says the market has become increasingly sophisticated, which in turn is driving demand. “We have people coming specifically into the Hills for méthode traditionnelle. They’re looking for those tiny, lively bubbles which come from the extra pressure of second fermentation, they’re looking for the softness which comes from a gentle crush, and they’re looking for that dryness and elegance – the signatures of a fine Hills sparkling wine.”

Just like those bubbles, sales of Hills méthode traditionnelle are lively and on the rise. “Our Blanc de Noir is our second biggest seller after our Shiraz. And that surprises me because sparkling wine is not an everyday wine. Not that I’m complaining. I can only assume people have lots to celebrate!”

somerled.com.au

 

METHODEIN THEIR MADNESS

For some serious sparkling in the Adelaide Hills, try these local producers:

 

Ashton Hills Winemaker Stephen George is something of a national hero for squeezing peerless Pinot from a tiny 3.5ha block. The vineyard is now owned by Wirra Wirra, but the winemaker keeps an eye on things.

Try the 2011 Blanc de Noir ($40) or the fruit-driven Salmon Brut ($35).

ashtonhills.com.au

 

Bird in Hand This is one of the region’s largest producers, and known for drawing huge crowds to its sell-out music events at the Woodside cellar door. But Bird in Hand still knows how to keep things intimate and finessed: they made only 243 bottles of the Lalla Victoria – Late Disgorged – Sparkling Pinot Noir 2002, and it’s available at a rather giddy $150. The Nest Egg Joy 2010 Pinot Noir ($75) took gold at the 2014 International Wine Show.

birdinhand.com.au

 

Golding Wines The 2009 Marjorie Methode Champenoise Sparkling ($50 and inevitably shortened to the “The Marj”) is a 2000-bottle limited release of MC sparkling, aged on lees for 33 months. The label tells a tale of its inspiration – the exploits of wartime nurse Marjorie Payze who was Lucy Golding’s grandmother – and is very in keeping with the family-friendly nature of this lovely Lobethal winery.

goldingwines.com.au

 

Deviation RoadThe Loftia is a name to be reckoned with, as is its maker, Kate Laurie.

The 2013 Loftia Vintage Brut ($44) has been aged on lees for 24 months, and like the earlier 2009 vintage, has earned itself a Sydney trophy for “Best Australian Sparkling”.

The cellar door sits on a 50ha property at the end of a long, steep road that (appropriately enough) deviates; a traditional Russian sabre will be used to slice open a bottle of bubbles upon request …

deviationroad.com

 

PetalumaCroser is part of the Petaluma brand, a tried and true label that has blazed a sparkling trail since 1987.

The new cellar door behind Woodside offers a dedicated Croser room, as well as stunning views.

For a complex, creamy drop, try the newly released Croser Piccadilly Valley Late Disgorged Sparkling 2003 ($55), a Pinot Noir and Chardonnay blend kept on lees for 11 years.

petaluma.com.au

 

The Lane VineyardAs well as being home to one of the finest restaurants in the Adelaide Hills, The Lane produces the 2009 Cuvee Helen Blanc de Blancs, made from a one-acre (0.4ha) parcel of chardonnay.

Disgorged after a minimum of five years on lees, it sells for $55. The perfect start to the long (long) lunch…

thelane.com.au