2012 Blanc de Blancs - Yarra Valley

PROUDLY True Blue: Australian Sparkling Wine

– not imitation Champagne.

AUSSIE SPARKLING NO COPY-CAT CHAMPAGNE

David Ellis

TALK to Dan Buckle, Senior Winemaker at Chandon about bubbly, and you'll very quickly learn that here's a man most passionate about the fact he's making Australian Sparkling Wine – not an imitation Champagne.

And while there may be others refer loosely to Aussie bubblies as "Champagne," he's adamant that his Australian Sparkling Wine is purely and uniquely that, because just as the French boast of their Champagnes reflecting soils made up of their unique chalk deposits covered with a mix of sand, marl, clay and lignite, his Sparkling Wine is reflective of Chardonnay grown on True Blue Australian red volcanic basalt soils, and known as ferrosols.

His latest Sparkling release, a 2012 Blanc de Blancs (a wine made exclusively from white grapes) was crafted entirely from Chardonnay fruit off vineyards in Victoria's cool Upper Yarra Valley and the equally cool Whitlands Plateau of the King Valley. And after tirage and secondary fermentation, Dan gave this one 36 month's ageing on yeast – similar to the important Methode Traditionelle process in France.

Pay $41 to kick off that next celebratory dinner… you'll find the forward limey and apple-fruit flavours and zesty mineral acidity a great match with mussels in a creamy tarragon sauce, or scallops sprinkled with anise-flavoured slightly spicy Thai basil.

for week beginning 7 September 2015