two fizzies: one red, one pink

Yesterday:

Brackenwood sparkling shiraz (Southern Adelaide Hills) 2005 (Traditional fermentation in the bottle)
A small winery, Brackenwood makes its wines in small batches. I bought this sparkling shiraz after tasting it at cellar door back in October. We opened it at a party last night under the vine covered pergola at a friend’s house. Velvety, dark in colour, small persistent bead; blackberries on the nose and tongue, a hefty pinch of cinnamon and black pepper, a bit of licorice. Sweet-ish but not vulgarly so. A winner for drinking without food.

Last weekend:

Foggo Cinsault sparkling rosé (McLaren Vale) NV (Charmat method)
A couple of weeks back the Francophile and I joined a group of friends for a winery crawl in McLaren Vale, where I was introduced to Foggo Wines. Foggo is a small family-run winery. Their wines are made in a very hands-on way, and they produce a relatively large range when you consider they have a very small crush. I was tremendously impressed, particularly by their reds and sparklings. I love sparkling rosé, and bought some of theirs. We opened it as a pre-dinner drink with friends last weekend. The flavours were tight and lean, the finish dry with an acid zing: just the features that won me over tasting it at cellar door. Disappointingly, it lost its fizz fairly fast. The first glasses out of the bottle were fine; but second glasses poured from the bottom half of the bottle after it had been open a while had lost a lot of their fizz.

Matilda
Interesting wines!

IIRC the loss of fizz is faster under charmat method (than 'traditional') - maybe they should bottle in halves? Interesting to see then use Cinsault, which wouldn't be an obvious choice.

I wonder if Brokenwood will get uptight about the name 'Brackenwood'? It seems awfully close in both written and spoken forms. Nice to hear of spicy elements, though I do struggle with the sweetness in many splurgundies.

regards

Ian

maybe they should bottle in halves?

That would probably overcome the wine's biggest weakness.

I agree with you completely about the level of sweetness in many red fizzies. The bottom end of the market is almost always impossibly sweet, to my taste. I'm happy to devote my life to the continuous search for the perfect sparkling red, drier and with a clean finish, with the structure of a good red and the persistent small bead that marks a fine sparkling wine.