Call me a wet rag, but I won’t be opening the customary volume of champagne and local bubbly this Christmas. In company with an exchange rate that makes the Australian dollar more resemble Monopoly money than ever before, a succession of less than outstanding seasons in Champagne has served to make the French stuff broadly less attractive and painfully less affordable than we’re used to paying. And back home I’m honestly finding it difficult to penetrate the hype and the fluff to find real evidence that enough Australians are seriously still committed to going forward with the sparkling stuff. Promising brands emerge, start producing more wine to make some money, and quality begins to go wobbly. Now that’s off my chest, there’s always enough decent fizz for some serious fun. Here’s a selection of different Australian and French wines across a broad range of styles that shouldn’t disappoint at their various prices. Billecart-Salmon Brut Reserve NV Clean, lingering and very savoury, this is a lighter and more delicate Champagne whose delicate, lightly herby and floral aroma has a creamy, buttery background. There’s a pleasing length of flavour strengthened by an excellent spine of refreshing acidity, while a fine, creamy effervescence enhances the wine’s brightness and impact. Fine, tight and nervy, this traditional expression of Champagne has a finish that borders on the dry without quite culminating in real austerity. Bollinger Special Cuvee NV It may lack the presence and the punch of the usual Special Cuvee, but that doesn’t mean that the currently available expression of the Bollinger house stamp isn’t a terrific wine: far from it. Fans of this house will enjoy the slightly baked aromas of cracked yeast, the chewy, textured mouthfeel of creamy thickness, and the ever so slightly aldehydic evolution of complex flavour. Although there’s no denying that it’s not quite the typical delivery from Bollinger, its attractive fineness and reserved cherry and raspberry flavours present a delightfully vinous expression of Champagne. Chandon Australia Prestige Cuvee 1994 With Chandon Australia’s Millennium Cuvee, this is the company’s first genuine effort to craft a base wine specifically intended to experience at least five years of maturation prior to disgorging. The result is a big, rich, round mouthful of a sparkling wine, whose toasty development and creaminess stand it apart from the large number of relatively youthful Australian sparkling wines available this Christmas. It drinks almost as a ripe and juicy blanc de blancs with intense buttery, peach and apple flavours, not surprising since 60% of the wine is from chardonnay fruit. Its soft, chewy sort of a palate stamps it very much as a food wine and less of an aperitif. Charles Heidsieck Mis en Cave 1996 I really enjoy what Charles Heidsieck has achieved with its ‘mis en cave’ concept of non-vintage Champagne, each vintage of which is a distinct and different assemblage with unique textures and flavours. That said, the house hallmark of a savoury, bready yeast influence and creamy texture clearly stamps these wines as members of the same family. The 1996 wine, which it must be stressed is not a vintage, presents typically delicate, citrusy fruit set against a background whose nutmeal and bready yeast influences provide surprising complexity amid non-vintage competition. Generous in its richness and texture, the wine is simultaneously restrained and refined, finishing long and tight, with clean and finely balanced acids. It’s a terrific Champagne, bursting with freshness and vitality. Hardys Arras Pinot Noir Chardonnay 1995 This is the less-decorated twin of the highly successful Chardonnay Pinot Noir Arras blend of the same vintage, 1995. It’s quite herbaceous and tropical, with lifted pineapple, toasty and honeyed aromas over some intense red berry pinot flavour. Generously proportioned, it’s rather a developed wine, broad and mouthfilling and a little forward and brassy, finishing fractionally sweet. Krug Grande Cuvee NV Krug maintains its exceptional, consistent and thoroughly unique personality with this typically unctuous, winey Champagne of astonishing richness and character. Built from the ground upwards with a subtle background of barrel fermentation influences, it is wild and exotic, nutty and savoury, simultaneously evolved yet vibrant in its youthful freshness. It presents a full spectrum of character from dried flowers, stonefruit to apples and pears, but of greater interest is its harmony of developed flavour and texture from its extended period in contact with autolysed yeast. And after that you receive a wine that has been kept on cork for several years again, acquiring a more familiar oxidative and toasty quality. If ever a Champagne could match the multi-layered complexity and depth of the greatest of still table wines it is Krug, assembled each year from a treasure-chest of older vintages, each of which is fastidiously conserved in small containers. It’s an uncompromising and traditional wine whose aristocratic bearing simply exudes confidence and breeding, which is one way of saying that Krug is Krug because the makers of Krug wouldn’t entertain for a moment a way of doing things differently to what they always have done at Krug. And that’s that. Petaluma Croser 1998 For each of us who might prefer sparkling wines with developed autolytic and evolved secondary flavours, there’s another who drinks them young and fresh. Petaluma’s Croser 1998 will please the latter crowd, for its lively spectrum of cherry and raspberry fruit is offset by a light creamy yeast influence and then finished by lively clear acids. It’s charming, uncomplicated and easy-drinking, generous in flavour and lightly dosed at expedition. Seppelt Salinger 1994 While Seppelt may have ceded some ground in the fashion aspect of the sparkling stakes, its flagship wine is creamy and finely balanced, revealing some maturing creamy and toffee-like flavours with nutty, citrus fruit. Its delicate, almost flowery perfume precedes a palate of surprising fineness and elegance, while its finish is subdued, long and savoury. Yarra Burn Pinot Noir Chardonnay Pinot Meunier 1998 Another vibrant and youthful wine, the latest release from Yarra Burn has a fragrance of fresh lemon, apples, red berries and creamy yeast. It’s a lighter, finer and tight-knit wine whose fresh, forward palate is lively and lightly creamy, before finishing long and dry with lingering flavours of pears and walnut. Yellowglen Cuvee Victoria 1996 Somehow it’s easy to forget that Yellowglen, which before the arrival of Domaine Chandon, was virtually the only a genuine rival to Seppelt as a serious maker of quality sparkling wine. Its premier label, the Cuvee Victoria, remains a fine, elegant and restrained alternative to the more forward and toasty wines offered by so many Australian makers. The 1996 vintage reveals subtle floral aromas and a typically delicate and creamy palate pierced with penetrative small berry fruits and appley acids. The fleshiness of its texture builds with time, while its freshness and vitality linger on the palate.
