Fine time to sparkle for winemakers
DEMAND for Tasmania’s sparkling wine is so high that the state’s producers are struggling to keep up — and they couldn’t be happier about it.
Nearly a dozen of the state’s top sparkling wine producers toasted each other’s successes at a recent dinner at Josef Chromy Estate in the state’s North, hosted by Halliday Wine chief editor Tyson Stelzer.
Mr Stelzer has been spruiking Tasmania’s drops in New York, London, Hong Kong and France for years and he said some of the biggest markets were finally starting to take notice of just how good our sparkling wine is.
“Thank you for introducing me to the best sparkling wines of Tasmania. I almost said ‘champagnes’, they are on that level,” Carol Duval-Leroy recently told Mr Stelzer, someone
regarded as one of the most dynamic CEOs in Champagne, France.
“Tasmania has again shone as Australia’s hero sparkling state in my tastings over the past year, topping the charts by every measure,” he said.
“Tasmania claimed 19 places in my Top 30 Australian Sparklings of 2020, with House of Arras leading the charge with six cuvées.
“Pipers River in Tasmania’s cool North again proved its credentials as Australia’s sparkling capital, with eight cuvées, while the Derwent and North-West each contributed two, and the Tamar one.”
The reason why Tasmania’s sparklings made Stelzer’s top 30 list is simple.
“Because it’s so good and it’s such good value … it doesn’t try to be Champagne, but it takes the same quality cues and does it in an authentically Tasmanian way and does it at a price
that Champagne can’t do,” he said.
He predicts in the next few years Tasmania’s sparkling wine will become more globally recognised, available and celebrated, as well as “rightfully and where appropriate, more highly priced” to reflect its quality.
“Winemakers want more fruit and they can’t get it,” Mr Stelzer said.
“Grape prices have hit record highs. Every grape that’s in the ground for sparkling base is already allocated this year and half the winemakers in the room want more but can’t get it,” Mr Stelzer said.
“That means that we will see, in the years to come, I feel it’s inevitable we’ll see the price of Tasmania’s sparkling increase to meet the cost of what is one of the most expensive wine styles to produce.”