SPARKLING WINE

Sparkling wine comes in a range of flavours, styles and types from around the world, including:

• Champagne: Champagne is famous for its quality, complex white fruit flavours and creamy, acidic taste.
• Prosecco: This Italian sparkling wine is light, fruity, and aromatic, perfect for any celebration or casual get-together.
• Cava: This Spanish sparkler comes in various styles, from dry to slightly sweet. Known for its fine bubbles and a refreshing blend of crisp apple, almond, and pear flavours, it’s a thirst-quenching drop.
• Moscato d’Asti: Crafted in northern Italy, Moscato d’Asti is loved for its natural sweetness, gentle frizzante sparkle, and low alcohol content, with flavours of peach, apricot and sometimes musk or orange blossom.
• Crémant: This French sparkler offers a creamy texture, subtle dryness and top-notch quality, with flavours of pear, citrus, chamomile and honey.
• Australian Sparkling Wine: Recognised for their quality and unique character, Tasmanian sparkling wines are characterised by their vibrant fruit flavours, lively acidity, and delicate bubbles. From classic Chardonnay blends and Pinot Noir blends to unique sparkling Shiraz, there is a wide range of options to explore and enjoy.
• Sparkling red wines offer rich flavours that can add excitement to any occasion. From light and fruity to bold and full-bodied, their complex characters bring a new dimension to sparkling wines.

Sparkling wine is typically made in one of three ways:

• Traditional method: Used in the making of premium sparkling wines such as Champagne, Cava and certain Crémant wines. It involves a second fermentation within the bottle. A mixture of yeast and sugar, known as the “liqueur de tirage,” is added to the wine before it is bottled. The resulting carbon dioxide creates the iconic bubbles.
• Tank method: The Tank method, also called the “Charmat Method”, offers a faster alternative to the Traditional Method and is typically less expensive. This is the method for making Prosecco. After the initial fermentation, the wine is transferred to a sealed pressurised tank for a secondary fermentation to create the bubbles.
• Ancestral method: Believed to be the oldest way of producing sparkling wine. Here, fermentation is halted by reducing the temperature. Once bottled, the fermentation continues with the trapped carbon dioxide, creating lightly effervescent wines.

These methods allow winemakers to craft sparkling wines with varying levels of complexity, aromas and textures.

Sparkling wines have a shorter lifespan once opened compared to red and white wines. While red and white wines typically remain fresh for 3-5 days, sparkling wines lose their fizz within 1-3 days.

Once opened, use a sparkling wine stopper to create a tight seal on the bottle and preserve the bubbles. Store the bottle in the fridge to keep it cool.

Serve sparkling wine between 4-10°C. Chill it for at least three hours in the fridge or put it on ice for about half an hour before serving to achieve the desired temperature.

Flute glasses are the top choice for serving sparkling wine. Their tall and slender shape, narrow rims and long stems enhance the enjoyment of sparkling wine. The long stem keeps the wine cool by preventing your hands from warming the glass. The flute’s slender bowl allows the bubbles to travel through the wine, while the narrow rim concentrates the delicate aromas and flavours.