WINE-18.1-feature

Bubbly for Christmas
‘Tis the season to drink bubbly; but not all bubblies are created equal. Sparkling wine goes through more winemaking processes from fermentation to flute than any other wine style and when corners are cut you can see, smell and taste it. Here are three that are worthy of your festive attention.

Dominique Portet Yarra Valley Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier Rose NV
Put aside any prejudice you may have for pink bubbles, this is just a fantastic sparkling wine, full stop. It’s a beautiful pale salmon in colour with fine, even bubbles and wonderful balance. At this price it’s great value too.
Blue Pyrenees Midnight Cuvee 2010
Voted World Champion Australian Sparkling Wine at the inaugural Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships, the accolade is well deserved and long overdue. Midnight Cuvee has been one of this country’s best for a long time.
Nicolas Feuillatte Réserve Particulière Brut NV
This is France’s top selling Champagne brand; it’s not serious Champagne for the cognoscente but bubbly designed for its original purpose — parties. The limited edition ‘explorer’ packaging makes it extra festive.

Book for browsing
James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2015 Edition, Hardie Grant Books 
There are plenty of wine guides to choose from these days but James Halliday’s Wine Companion is the one that winemakers peruse feverishly to see how they scored. It still leads the pack — informative, accurate and comprehensive.

A red on a budget
Lost Buoy The Edge Shiraz 2013
This new winery started life as Lion Point, a name which was challenged by Lion Nathan. Lost Buoy — a better name anyhow — is the new moniker. This Shiraz offers plenty of McLaren Vale blue and blackberry goodness and at this price is a steal.

Did you know?
In the past few years Australia’s love of Champagne has seen us go from eight to seventh to the sixth largest importer of the French product. That’s more than six million bottles!

More Like This

Bowerbird Beauty

Chris and Raelene Schutz have transformed the site of a former drive-in picture theatre in South Australia’s Riverland. As invitations go, […]

Broughton hall bounty: a garden creation

A Gippsland couple have created a showpiece garden on a former dairy farm overlooking Tarago Reservoir. When Philip Hunter made his […]

Sea to Summit: Historical Route

The historical route from Victoria’s Gippsland Lakes to the rural city of Wangaratta is a rolling tapestry of colourful stories and […]

Magnificent Merrilla

The Campbell family is steering historic and magnificent Merrilla station on the NSW Southern Tablelands towards an exciting new future. As […]

Bags of creativity

Doug and Lajla Jenkins have made a new home — and a business crafting bags of creativity — on the NSW […]

THE PYRENEES

THE PYRENEES

Wines in the Pyrenees, a wine for celebrating, a wine for lashing out and a wine for cocktail making.

raising-the-bar

DIY WINES

A wine you create yourself, an Australian great and a pink wine.

west cape howe

WEST CAPE HOWE

A wine for quenching, a wine for lunching, a wine for saving and a wine for food matching.

Follow Us on Instagram