First taste: Ulithorne Flamma Sparkling Shiraz NV

Australian sparkling Shiraz is a bit of a marmite (or should that be Vegemite?) wine.  It’s so exuberantly fruity young that it’s hard to think of a more polar opposite wine to the French fizz we most associate with bubbles.  

In my (admittedly limited) experience of the genre, a mature example – a twenty-something-year-old Seppelt Sparkling Shiraz 1987 –  most convinced.  Its intriguingly savoury nose left me totally unprepared for the fresh, lively acidity and bead which animated the wine.  Who knew?  Well, insiders do – I later learned Vanya Cullen had some golden Seppelt’s oldies stashed away – the oldest from 1946!

But I can now reveal that a young sparkling has very successfully tickled my taste buds.  It is:

Ulithorne Flamma Sparkling Shiraz NV (McLaren Vale)

Made in a drier style, Ulithorne Flamma Sparkling Shiraz is an inky deep hue with savoury earth, marmite and fine, dark  chocolate tannins to its concentrated, vibrant core of perfumed cassis, mulberry and juicy blackberry fruit.  The secret of its complexity? Eleven back vintages of Ulithorne’s flagship Shiraz, Frux Frugis Shiraz, is blended into the base wine which comes from the 2013 vintage.  The base wine was matured for 14 months in old French oak before undergoing a second ferment in bottle.  It was disgorged in 2014 after 9 months on lees; the dosage – another complexing factor – comprised 5g/l of 20-year-old fortified McLaren Vale Shiraz.  Impressive.   I reckon just the thing for BBQ spare ribs or, for non-meat eaters, I’d like to pair it with this take on Hakkasan’s delicious tofu aubergine and mushroom in claypot.  13.5%