″The whole premise of our sparkling style is age and patience,” says winemaker Kate Laurie. “We’ve got a lot of back-vintage wines, waiting to be disgorged, ageing on lees. I thought it would be great idea to open them and see how they’re maturing. It’s something I’ve wanted to do for years.”

I’m sitting at a table in the winery at Deviation Road in the Adelaide Hills, owned and run for the past two decades by Kate and her husband, Hamish Laurie. In the wine glasses lined up in front of me are various vintages of their top sparkling, Beltana, a blanc de blancs, or 100 per cent chardonnay. It and the other sparkling wines the Lauries produce at Deviation Road have developed a fine reputation since their first release over a decade ago.