Georgette Sparkling Wine
- Customer pickup,
- Courier
- In detail
- Type of wineSparkling wine
Tasting Notes
Grape Variety | 75% Malbec, 25% Chardonnay |
Vintage | 2008 |
Oak maturation | None |
Alcohol | 12.5% Alc/Vol |
Release date | November 2010 |
Peak drinking | Upon release however will develop more savory complexity with a further 3-5 years. |
Food matches | Ideal as a match with aperitifs, soft cheese on crusty bread or lightly flavoured poultry. |
Colour | Apricot / salmon-pink appearance. |
Aroma | A clean and inviting bouquet with lifted strawberries and rosehip complimented by complex and rich yeast derived autolysis characters of bread and cream. Spice and cinnamon melds perfectly together to provide finesse, richness and complexity. |
Palate | The crisp and seductive palate is light and creamy with sweet strawberry and spice. Richer yeast derived characters of pie crust provide complexity and softness, while retaining finesse from the fine mousse which adds life to the palate. This lush and refreshing sparkling wine has a long strawberry finish. |
Winemaker Comments
Viticulture
The malbec and chardonnay grapes used in the production of this wine are sourced from contracted growers in the northern Margaret River region. We pick small parcels of each variety earlier than the remaining fruit used to make our still table wines, principally to maintain the higher natural fruit acidity necessary for quality sparkling wine. These small parcels are required to be handpicked to reduce phenolic extraction from broken berry skins, and in the case of the malbec to reduce excess colour extraction prior to crushing.
Winemaking
The malbec and chardonnay are independently crushed and gently pressed off skins with a series of press fractions going to separate holding tanks for later assessment. The lightest hue of raspberry pink colour is derived from the malbec pressing fractions and great care is taken to keep darker pressings away from the delicate lighter juice. Some blending of pressing fractions takes place however the malbec and chardonnay are cool fermented separately in stainless steel and only blended as dry base wines after exhaustive blending trials. Once the base wine blend is achieved we assess for acid balance and then bottle the wine with a dose of active yeast and sugar (known as 'tirage') to encourage the secondary ferment. The bottle ferment lasts approximately six weeks after which the tirage sparkling wine rests in storage for approximately two years gaining complexity from contact with the yeast lees. When deemed to be balanced and sufficiently 'creamy' we send the bottles for riddling and disgorging where the yeast plug is removed and the cork inserted.