While the majority of wineries now entering the sparkling red game are treating it with due and proper reverence, an uncomfortably large and growing crowd of mass-produced sparkling reds is finding their way onto the retail shelves. Most of these wines have not been through the champagne process and most are a simple, sugary mix of fruity red wine with bubbles. Quite justifiably, Captain Spurgle and his allies are beginning to dread the phoenix-like re-emergence of Cold Duck, the mass-produced sparkling red of the early 1970s which killed the sparkling burgundy market. ‘There are too many who want to make a fast buck on sparkling burgundy’s popularity and reputation’, warns Ian Loftus. ‘Two journalists with guts, Mark Shield and Huon Hooke, have referred to some of these wines as modern-day Cold Ducks. They’re made from inferior red and sometimes white grapes, are tank fermented and have spent no time on lees. Huon rates them as upmarket Lambrusca. Some are using sugar to hide poor fruit. There are however some quite pleasant wines made with a transfer method (which are not fermented in the bottle you buy), but they lack the complexity of the classic styles.’ Ian McKenzie says he can’t blame people for jumping on the bandwagon. ‘There’s a lot of product out there which isn’t in style, made from all sorts of varieties which have nothing to do with the traditional sparkling red. Part of the problem is that if sparkling red really took off, there’s no way we could supply the mass market with premium wine. So I’m happy for it to be in the hands of serious wine drinkers. But some people are so greedy they could bring the product down.’ ‘There’s still a long way to go with Australian sparkling red’, says Ian Loftus. ‘We’ve just scratched the surface in the last seven years. But if it remains based on quality, we have the potential to have a truly world-class wine, uniquely Australian and ours.’ Setting the record straight Despite the publication by Dr John Wilson of The Wilson Vineyard in Clare of some well-researched evidence to the contrary, its is still regularly printed that sparkling burgundy was developed at the instigation of Australian diggers returning from France after the first World War. Supposedly charmed by the rare sparkling form of Bouzy rouge, made from pinot at the village actually called Bouzy, they are alleged to have persuaded local winemakers to take up the art. But let’s stick to the facts. Here follows a pre-World War I timeline of sparkling burgundy. Sparkling Burgundy – The Pre-History 1881 Auguste d’Argent makes a light-bodied sparkling red wine for the Victorian Champagne, established by Melbourne doctor and parliamentarian Louis Lawrence Smith. 1893 Edmond Mazure creates the first true sparkling burgundy at Auldana for Josiah Symon (Based on sound assumptions by y John Wilson). 1894 Hans Irvine & Co commended for its Sparkling Burgundy in the class for Australian sparkling wine at the Melbourne Wine Show. 1895 A Hans Irvine Sparking Burgundy wins a gold medal at the Bordeaux Exhibition of 1895. The entry is listed as a pinot noir. John Wilson suggests it might possibly have been pinot meunier. A new class at the Adelaide Show for ‘sparkling wine other than champagne’ is won by Auldana. 1897 Edmond Mazure makes 1,500 dozen sparkling burgundy at Auldana. 1907 A class for sparkling burgundy is created at the Adelaide wine show and is won by Auldana. 1909 Minchinbury wins the sparkling burgundy class at the Sydney show.
