Rumball Spark Shiraz

Peter Rumball is an Australian specialist Méthode Champenoise Sparkling Winemaker who led the 1980's renaissance of sparkling red wines. His style has made him famous in Australia. Peter Rumball loves this style so much, Sparkling Red wine is now the majority of sparkling wine that he produces. The wine is heavy in varietal character. Shiraz and Merlot are used. Big, full basewines are made from these grapes; they have great depth of colour and fruit character, exclusive of high alcohol. The resultant sparkling wine has a very full palate. The palate is a sumation of fruit, tannin, sweetness and bubbles. Great emphasis is placed on these four characters of the wine, and to this end the interaction between the disgorged wine and the expedition liqueur is of great importance. A special formula expedition liqueur is added at the disgorging stage. The wine will age and improve in the bottle for another three years, although the wine palate is set up for maximum balance at the time of purchase and therefore would be slightly out of balance at greater than three years bottle age. A Vintage Sparkling Shiraz is made in good years. The Vintage wine is designed for a long life and therefore is made with the best Coonawarra Shiraz basewines from most years. Vintage Sparkling Shiraz (much like Vintage Champagne) will live for 50 or 60 years on the yeast lees. When the wine is disgorged after this time, it is fresh and beautiful. Read less