Winemaking icon or red herring? Dating back to 1893, when a French winemaker by the name of Edmond Mazure first made a red wine from pinot noir and pinot meunier that kicked, the wine we used to call Sparkling Burgundy ranks alongside Rutherglen muscat and Hunter semillon as one of Australia’s gifts to the wine world. Today the best sparkling reds are almost exclusively made from shiraz and are put through the full methode champenoise process after a spell in oak. While young they are wild and briary, bursting with dark berry fruit and finishing savoury, if usually slightly sweet. After some years the richness and crackly creaminess of their youth are replaced by a fineness, softness and suppleness as their effervescence becomes more lazy, and as they acquire genuinely earthy, gamey and mushroomy complexity. While there are dozens of sparkling reds to choose from today, from grapes as diverse as pinot noir, chambourcin, cabernet sauvignon, merlot, durif and grenache, too many are either over-extracted and tough, excessively sweet, volatile or too oaky. I guess that’s why the goods ones are so special. You will either love or hate sparkling red. You’ll discover there are no hard and fast rules: you can drink it chilled or at room temperature, with or without food, outside or inside, and at any time of day. Love it and you will have just discovered the most versatile food wine on the planet, and the only wine I know that can turn Eggs Benedict into a gastronomic experience. Hate it and you’ll never understand why others find irresistible charm in the dark, spicy, frothy stuff. Below are the five best Australian sparkling reds on sale today. Two wines also to look out for are Seppelt’s Original Sparkling Shiraz 1996 ($18), a marvellously textured, classic wine with sumptuous depth, fine tannins and vibrant briary, peppery fruit. It’s a steal at the price. Chandon’s first foray into sparkling red is its Sparkling Pinot Shiraz NV ($25), a delighfully lighter-bodied alternative whose charmingly supple palate and ethereal fragrances present deliciously evolving pinot character and shiraz spiciness. Barossa Valley Estate E & E Sparkling Shiraz 1996, $41 There’s a school of thought that sparkling red shouldn’t show any new oak influence, but there are also plenty who mourn the passing of the steam car. With time comes change and this means a wider choice. So here is a wine that successfully marries the briary, earthy, licorice qualities of traditional Barossa sparkling red with the creamy coconut, coffee and vanilla influences of American oak. It bursts with penetrative red and black berry fruit, shows some attractive leathery bottle-aged character and will stay at its best for a few years yet. Joseph Sparkling Red (2001 disgorging), $55 Joe Grilli, one of Australia’s most innovative winemakers, finds it so hard to accumulate enough old dry red and Australian port to make the base wines for this exceptional and distinctive sparkling wine that he only releases it every two years. His Italian heritage is expressed in its savoury, dry nature and in its handsome cut of velvet-smooth tannin. Unusually wild and rustic aromas of barnyard, chocolate and leather precede a rich, chewy palate of surprisingly vibrant raisin-like dried fruit flavours, while there’s an appealing hazelnut note to the wine’s long and earthy finish. Peter Lehmann The Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz 1994, $35 cellar door Another terrific sparkling shiraz from the Barossa, but a step back towards a finer, tighter expression than one might have expected from the makers of Stonewell. A mature and complex bouquet of earthy, mushroomy, farmyard nuances with ripe dark plum and cassis flavour paves the way for an smooth and seductive palate whose spicy shiraz fruit is finely offset by a slightly sweet finish of fine tannins and fresh acids. Lovely balance and restraint, drinking beautifully right now. Rockford Black Shiraz (2001 disgorging), $53 mailing list The latest release of Robert O’Callaghan’s classic sparkling wine is slightly fuller and chunkier than its tightly-knit but generous precedessor, but should develop more fineness and restraint with time on cork. A blend from its maker’s ‘rolling solera’ of different base red wines, this already presents a seamless mouthfeel of tightly focused small dark cherry and berry fruit, creamy richness and lees influences, plus a perfect balance of sweetness, acid and fine-grained bony tannins. All it needs is time, and perhaps more volume, since it’s as hard to capture as one of America’s Most Wanted. Seppelt Show Sparkling Shiraz 1990, $58 Nobody has a heritage of sparkling red quite like that of Seppelt, whose best sparking reds have habitually been sourced from low-yielding vineyards at Great Western in Victoria. This is its premier label, one only released with considerable maturity. Unlike many Australian wines from 1990, this is supple and willowy. Its delightfully evolved, dark and alluring flavours of sweet leather and chocolate plumcake are delightfully spiced with cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, before a fennel-like savoury note at its lingering, fine finish. Like the Rockford, it’s a benchmark style and one that will surely appreciate even more time in the bottle.
