Sparkling Shiraz

Sparkling Shiraz, this most unusual sparkling wine style belongs to Australia where rich, full-bodied Shiraz is made into sparkling red wine. It has a long tradition and is held in high regard as a festive drink and a favourite of many winemakers The majority of Sparkling wine is made from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes. Sparkling wine comes in all shapes and sizes – white, red, pink, dry, sweet, light, rich – but it’s the bubbles and how these are generated that differentiates Sparkling from other wines. Some Rosé (light pink coloured) styles of sparkling wine are made by allowing red grapes to stay in contact with the skins to pick up the colour, however Rosé sparkling wines are mostly produced by including a red wine in the blending process to enable greater control. Non-vintage Sparkling is made from a blend of grape varieties and sometimes vintages, whereas Vintage Sparkling refers to wines made with grapes from a single year only. The first stage of making a sparkling wine is to produce the base wines (no bubbles). Base wines are then blended together – usually in stainless steel tanks – until the desired wine style has been created. The bubbles are then generated during a secondary fermentation, which occurs in the bottle or in a specially designed tank. Key production methods include: Traditional Method is where the secondary fermentation occurs in the bottle. The wine is matured on yeast lees before riddling, removal of lees, disgorgement, dosage and sealing the bottle. Transfer Method is the same as the Traditional method, except following secondary fermentation in the bottle, the wine is placed into a tank, and clarified before re-bottling. Charmat Method involves a secondary fermentation in a specially designed pressure tank. The wine is then fined and filtered under pressure.