Cool Aussie Grapes for Sparkling Wine

Filed in archive Sparkling Wine on August 1, 2006

One reason why Australia has developed such a strong wine industry is partially due to the various climates available.

I did some digging around and discovered that Australia is the largest island in the world and the sixth largest country. This size allows for extreme differences in climate, and of course, that means extreme differences is grapes and thus our wine.

Something to think about when I read this article by The Australian News concerning the sparkling wines produced by Curly Flat and Bindi :

The Macedon Ranges wine region, about an hour's drive northwest of Melbourne, is the coldest on the mainland. Chardonnay and pinot noir are its main grapes, and a large percentage of the production is used in the making of high-quality sparkling wine.

It is a region which, year in, year out, throws down challenges to those producers who focus on table wines. Two makers have risen to meet those challenges and to make exemplary chardonnay and pinot noir every year.

They are Curly Flat and Bindi, the common factor being fastidious care in the vineyards, with every shoot, leaf and bunch of grapes inspected throughout the growing season and repositioned or removed (by hand) as the need arises. Only in Tasmania would costs per tonne equal those of Curly Flat and Bindi.