Festive fizz from Corryton Burge, Risky Business and Howard Vineyards

High-quality bubbles produced by Australian vineyards offer a top alternative to French Champagne at a fraction of the price in this exclusive deal.

High-quality Australian wines offer a top alternative to French Champagne at a fraction of the price in this week’s offer from The Australian Wine Club.

You can understand why Trent Burge, son of Barossa legend Grant Burge, wanted to play Test cricket for Australia.

Not just the allure of playing at the most elite level, and of succeeding at something he loved, but also, you suspect, to chart his own distinctive course in life as the son of a celebrated winemaker.

The irony is that while the Test dream never quite came about, Trent can see how the disciplines cricket taught him have helped him become a highly successful winemaker in his own right.

Trent’s Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay is one of a trio of Christmas-worthy sparkles that make up this week’s special offer from The Australian Wine Club.

With two from South Australia and one from Victoria, enjoying a combined discount of more than a fifth on the retail price in this seasonal sixpack, each wine is subtly different but they all talk to summer celebrations and conviviality.

When Trent was younger, though, summer meant cricket only, accumulating runs at school and then in grade cricket to feed that hope of wearing the baggy green.

“The dream never left from when I was a kid,” Trent says. “All through high school I was very focused on playing cricket and footy at the time.

The Burge family, from left: Helen, Trent, Amelia and Grant Burge. Picture: Josh Geelan

“After leaving school, I progressed into grade cricket pretty quickly, and the push was to go to play state cricket.

“In the end, I just found I couldn’t be consistent enough. I could compete with the best on my day but it wasn’t consistent enough to be going up through any higher level.

“It got to a point where it was more a feeling that it’s too late and it’s probably not going to happen now.”

By that stage, Trent was well-established in the family business, part of a lineage of winemaking going back six generations.

Though his father’s eponymous business was sold in 2015, the familial talents are hard at work in the wineries Trent has established – with more than a nod to the hours he spent crafting high scores out in the middle.

“Winemaking is very much like being a batter as every year for us as a vintage is no different to every innings,” Trent explains.

“Like winemaking, you get one opportunity as a batter to get it right (in that innings). How hard you work and the effort you put in to go through that first stage and establish things is how you set yourself up.

“Then you hold on for the ride and you look after it and you manage it to get to 100 – or now, obviously to make the best wines we can.”

Any cricket buff will tell you about the game’s unique mix of individual responsibility and teamwork, and that amalgam continues to serve Trent well as the figurehead of several growing winemaking businesses.

“A lot of my day-to-day work now is being out there talking to people and showing the wines, and not so much in the winery actually doing it,” he says. “That’s very much like being at first slip as the captain of the team while we’re fielding, working with the team to work for that wicket.

“As the captain, you’re working to try and get the best out of the rest of the team. We’re in the process of making great wines and the bowlers in that process would be the winemaking team.

“I’m very lucky that we’ve got a group of five of us, including myself and Dad, there’s three other winemakers that look after a lot of the day-to-day management, and the wines that we make are very much a credit to them as well.” 

Corryton Burge Sparkling Pinot Noir Chardonnay NV

If you poured this at sundown, the fading sunlight would gleam just as this does in the glass – then, as you draw breath, you’ll be hit with a bready, brioche layer topped with pear, apple, a bit of strawberry and cut grass, all of it super-fresh. There’s a creamy richness in the mouth, with a really lovely mouthfeel, and a fruit salad of pink lady apples, strawberry and citrus notes that inspire a dry finish. 12% alc, RRP $28 a bottle.

SPECIALS $21.99 a bottle in our sparkling six pack. 

Risky Business King Valley Prosecco NV

The floral notes on the nose match perfectly with the onset of summer, cut through with fresh pear and lemon citrus, and just a smidgen of marzipan. The palate is light, refreshing and streaked with sherbet and lemon sorbet, plus more of the pear, and all of it dressed in a zesty acidity that leads to a clean, dry finish. 95 points, Halliday Wine Companion. 10.5% alc, RRP $25 a bottle.

SPECIALS $19.99 in any mixed dozen, $21.99 a bottle in our sparkling six pack.

Howard Vineyard Adelaide Hills Sparkling Pinot Chardonnay 2023

The lightly pink hue is a hint of the red fruits to come on the nose, particularly raspberry and cherry, and a touch of candy floss. The chardonnay grapes contribute an undertow of stone fruits and they reappear in the mouth along with apples and greengages, filling out a rounded palate with just enough texture and a coat of richness from the pinot. 12.5% alc, RRP $30 a bottle.

SPECIALS $24.99 in any mixed dozen, $21.99 a bottle in our sparkling six pack.

SPARKLING SIXPACK Two bottles of each wine above for $21.99 a bottle. SAVE $34.

Order online or phone [phone] Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm AEDT. Deals are available only while stocks last. The Australian Wine Club is a commercial partnership with Laithwaites Wine, LIQP770016550