Wine Notes
Marlborough is home to a group of dedicated, traditional winemakers.
The Kiwi winemakers making the best bubbles
Méthode Marlborough, if you hadn’t guessed from the name, is all about bubbles. Not just any bubbles, but traditional method bubbles – code for sparkling wine made the same way as Champagne.
Since it launched in 2013, Méthode Marlborough has acquired many well-known member wineries: Allan Scott Family Winemakers, Daniel Le Brun, Hunter’s, Johanneshof Cellars, LV by Louis Vavasour, Nautilus, No. 1 Family Estate, Pernod Ricard, Saint Clair, Spy Valley Wines and Tohu.
So, what do members of Méthode Marlborough do that sets them apart from other sparkling winemakers?
The bible of all wine reference books is The Oxford Companion to Wine, and it describes traditional method bubbles as the most painstaking way of making wine sparkle. As anyone who’s fond of Champagne and good bubbly knows, the best ones can be rich, extremely complex and full-bodied. Not only because they sparkle but due to their complex production process.
There are three main ways to create sparkling wine. The most basic is to carbonate wine. The second is to put white wine through a second fermentation in a sealed tank so that carbon dioxide dissolves into the wine, creating bubbles. Wines made this way are bottled under pressure but some bubbles are lost in the process.
The third, most tricky way, is the traditional method, which Champagne makers have been refining for several hundred years. This involves a second fermentation in a sealed bottle with a carefully measured dose of sweetness and yeast to kick-start the ferment but not so much that the bottle explodes. This means that carbon dioxide dissolves into the wine in the bottle – the same bottle you buy and consume the bubbles from. The yeast cells also decompose, releasing fresh pastry aromas and mannoproteins into the wine. This adds complexity but takes time.
Rules are strict in the Champagne region for ageing wines after the second fermentation in bottle. All non-vintage wines must remain ‘on tirage’ (in bottle with yeast lees) for at least 18 months. Any less time and the wine tastes like a mere shadow of what makes it so delicious.
It’s with this deliciousness in mind that members of Méthode Marlborough decided to establish their own rules of production. Their aim is to promote and protect the integrity of their high-quality sparkling wines.
There’s one final step in the long-winded production chain. Disgorgement is the process of removing the lees from the heavy glass bottles that contain the sparkling wine. The bottles are tipped upright so the lees slide down to the neck. Then the neck is frozen to capture the sediment. The bottle cap is removed and the frozen plug of yeasty sludge shoots out. The bottle is turned upright, topped up with reserve bubbly and swiftly sealed with a cork (or crown seal, as some modernists are doing). And, hey presto, you have a beautiful yeasty, fresh-as-a-daisy bottle of bubbles.
There’s a reason Champagne is known as the best. It is without peer in its complex production process. But there are many contenders to rival its flavours and, in the opinion of yours truly, many members of Méthode Marlborough create extremely complex sparkling wines that match Champagne in process and in taste.
Best of all, they are affordable.
Read more from wine writer and author Joelle Thomson online.