In his recent article for National Liquor News, wine writer Andrew Graham comments on the trend towards investment in craft products in the Champagne and Sparkling sector. This is exciting news for producers of premium quality Australian sparkling, as consumers begin to explore quality home-grown alternatives to big-brand NV Champagne.
“(Ruth) Ellis at Hanging Rock (in Macendon Ranges) has seen the evolution of Australian sparkling wines since the start, and can’t help but get excited about the future.
“When we started making serious bubbles back in the early 80’s, the premium Australian sparkling category just didn’t exist,” she said.
“Through the hard work of some of the big (and small) players in town, Australian sparkling wine is being taken seriously both domestically and internationally.
“I think we still have some work to do in showing consumers the great value for money in premium Australian sparkling wine over Champagne, but we’ve certainly made a great start.”
At Terre à Terre in the Adelaide Hills, Xavier Bizot believes that a key way to grow premium Australian sparkling is to emphasise the quality of the winemaking, registering a new trademark of ‘Method Classic’ to protect and showcase the process (much like Method Champenoise for Champagne).
Bizot notes that the challenge for Australian sparkling winemakers is that “there are no rules that govern the use of the names ‘traditional method’ or ‘méthode traditionelle’, so they may be used on the label of a sparkling wine”.
This new trademark will then help to delineate the quality of premium, handpicked, bottle-fermented local sparkling such as Bizot’s Daosa Piccadilly Valley Natural Réserve and drive the fortunes of premium Australian sparkling forward.”
