pink fizz
2 December, 2007
Rosés continue to excite those who enjoy a glass of wine. That increasing interest includes sparkling styles, from all points of the wine world.
Hardy's sparkling supremo, Ed Carr says top-end rosés from Champagne are commanding many more dollars than comparable white styles. Ed tells me he has just ordered a bottle of Dom Perignon Rosé 1996 at a cost of about $600.00.
While Ed appreciates some of the older and more complex rosés, he believes the modern, Australian style calls for bright fruit with strawberry and cream characters and a fine palate that shows some texture and tannin. Those latter qualities could come from oak or from grape-skin contact with the juice to give the wine extra depth. It's a style that is food-friendly.
Ed makes his sparkling wines from a blend of chardonnay and pinot noir. He believes his rosé style demands more pinot noir than chardonnay in the blend; about ten per cent more than in the white style blend. He is not a fan of using 100 per cent pinot noir to make a sparkling rosé believing the 'blanc de noirs' style lacks the complexity, finesse and leaner nature that a blend with chardonnay can bring to the end result.
For the rosé, Ed chooses pinot noir with more overt strawberry character. He adds a little bit of oak to give tannin and structure. In fact, the oak component is very low to the point where many people would not realise it was there. It is enough, however, to add tannin and structure to the wine, building the detail of the style. As well, the wine goes through a 100 per cent malo-lactic fermentation (known as mlf). This is a secondary fermentation which sees apple-like malic acid converted to the dairy-like lactic acid; therein the creaminess Ed wants in the style.
He then insists on enough bottle age to build the yeasty complexity required; the wine is aged under cork for six months to bring it into balance.
This is the formula for the Tigress Sparkling Rosé Pinot Noir Chardonnay. A wine Ed describes as being pitched at the serious rosé drinker.
Tigress is a Tasmanian label from Hardy's Bay of Fires winery. The fruit, for the rosé, is sourced from across the apple isle with some of the most prominent elements coming from the southern regions. The chardonnay, in particular, offers a Tasmanian minerality and tightness to the style which adds to the wine's elegance.
Ed suggests wines like the Tigress Sparkling Rosé have a character and presence that people cannot find in sparkling whites.
Ed has a Bay of Fires Vintage Sparkling Rosé waiting in the wings but I suspect we may be into the next decade before that wine is released.
If you would like to taste the consideration Ed Carr has given premium sparkling rosé, a bottle of Tigress will cost you about the mid-$20.00 mark.