2019 Kreglinger Brut Rosé $75

11/25/2025

The Kreglinger Tasmanian sparkling wine lineage goes all the way back to 1995. You learn a lot over 30 years, and one thing this family company has never lost sight of over the decades is that prestige sparkling is precision made, using the best possible vineyard resources available. It's not a safety net intended to catch fruit that doesn't make premium or prestige table wine.

Kreglinger's vintage Brut Rosé comes from the Kreglinger vineyard, a single south-facing site planted way back in the early 1980s. Yes, old vine material. Low-cropping Pinot Noir, specifically planted and managed for traditional method sparkling wine. There have been some fabulous Brut Rosés that have appeared under this vintage label over the years, with the 2005 being a personal favourite. This new release - at six years of age - seems to have been cast in a similar mould, or at least similar to the highly-acclaimed 2017.

Christmas is just a month away. New Year's Eve around five weeks. What could be better than celebrating one or both of those occasions with a small group of family or friends who really appreciate topnotch vintage sparkling? Forget the price. Have you looked at vintage Champagne lately?

This 2019 was the star of the show at a small Kreglinger dinner held at Launceston's Black Cow Bistro just over a month ago.

Former Kiwi Luke Whittle was appointed Chief Winemaker in 2019 and it marked the start of an incredible procession of capital city wine show gold medals and trophies, in addition to critical media acclaim.

As in previous vintages, this wine sprang into being after being hand-picked, whole bunch pressed and barrel-fermented in aged French oak, where it spent 9 months undergoing malolactic fermentation to add roundness and texture to the palate. The fizz wizardry was then followed by 48 months on lees in each individual bottle before traditional disgorging with 7.5g/L dosage the wine on its current journey through time.

The net effects of that entire process - including bottle maturation up until the cork is popped - are sublime. This is one very stylish and elegant bubbly, the beautifully layered textural palate endowing it with enormous capacity for drinking alongside a diverse range of food dishes, from appetiser to main and on to smelly cheese.

Experience shows that these Brut Rosé wines often continue to improve in the bottle for around 5-10 years in a cool dark cellar. So don't just think Christmas and New Year. Career milestones and significant birthdays usually prompt the gifting of special bottles as well.

Source: Kreglinger dinner, Black Cow Bistro, held 23 October 2025