Future simply sparkling

How's your collection of Tasmanian sparkling wines? Got some good bubblies from 1998 and 2000? If you have, you're going to like this week's news. It seems 2005 may be on track to repeat the award-winning performances of two of Tasmania's most successful sparkling wine vintages.

Okay, the final outcome is still far too early to call, but consider this. Many of the State's top sparkling wine producers expect this year's crop to achieve what amounts to a vigneron's daily double, the rare matching of viable vineyard yields with first rate fruit quality.

Industry pioneer Dr Andrew Pirie appears to have set the sparkling train in motion on March 7, when he processed 3.5 tonnes of premium Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from Mike and Philippa Sharman's 4ha site at Relbia on the outskirts of Launceston.

According to the man who founded Pipers Brook Vineyard in 1974, picking at the Glenwood Rd property constituted the earliest sparkling wine harvest he could remember experiencing.

"Admittedly we didn't make sparkling wine from the Tamar Valley in the old days, but this year's harvest does seem to have been quite early," Dr Pirie said.

The small volumes of fruit picked elsewhere in the State over the past 10 days or so have been received at winery processing facilities in pristine condition. Bunch weights and berry sizes generally have been in line with long-term industry averages. More importantly, their aromas and flavours have been true to variety, while levels of natural fruit sweetness and acidity fall within the ranges regarded as ideal for sparkling wine production.

In the south of the State, Winemaking Tasmania's Julian Alcorso began vintage 2005 with the processing of 5.5 tonnes of Pinot Noir from the Lowestoft property of Bernard McKay at Berriedale, in the Derwent Valley.

Like Dr Pirie, Alcorso is a little surprised by this year's early start to picking, given that vineyard growing and ripening seasons have been only average in terms of sunshine, ambient temperature and rainfall.

"There hasn't been much of a summer, but crop loads are better than last year so things are looking really good at the moment," Alcorso said.

"Of course that could all change. Right now, it looks like being a good year. It could even be a brilliant one."

Pipers Brook winemaker Rene Bezemer agrees. He said the Belgian-owned company was looking forward to a top-quality sparkling wine vintage, perhaps equalling that of 1998.

The key to the company's success will be the weather, as always.

"If we were to get rain without some wind behind it to dry things up, disease could become a bit of a risk," Bezemer said. 

"But so far, so good."

First published 20 March 2005: Sunday Examiner