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Sparkling Shiraz – as uniquely Australian as panning for gold under a gum tree.

Ethel (Old English for Noble) Gregory, Sarah’s beloved grandmother, spent her twilight years prospecting for gold and painting the Australian landscape around her adopted country town of Tarnagulla, Victoria.

Making a similar tree change, we join her in search of our Noble Gold – Barossa Valley Shiraz.

$40.00

$35 a bottle in any straight or mixed dozen

The meaning of ‘Noble’

As an adult it’s fascinating to look at past events through a more learned lens. Why did my parents make the decisions that they made? Would I now make those same decisions?

Even more interesting is looking further back in time. 

Why did Ethel Gregory, Sarah’s grandmother, leave Melbourne for country Victoria? Why did Sarah and I leave Melbourne for country South Australia?

The older you get, the more you realise you’re just like your parents or grandparents, and that their decisions were good decisions. Maybe it didn’t make sense at the time – why did Ethel move to somewhere so quiet, so far from family and friends? Why did Sarah and I do exactly the same, many decades later?

Ethel enjoyed panning for gold in her adopted town of Tarnagulla, Victoria. Finding gold became a hobby, with some of the discovered nuggets forged into jewellery for her granddaughters.

We, too, moved to an ancient gold field here in the Barossa. The Barossa Goldfields haven’t seen much activity in recent years, though for us we’re panning for a new type of above ground gold – Barossa Valley Shiraz.

Panning for gold in Tarnagullar
Region Barossa Valley, South Australia
Vintage 2023
Variety Shiraz
Volume 750ml
Alcohol Volume 14%
pH 3.38
TA 6.62 g/L
Sugar 18.9 g/L
Vegan Friendly
No fining agents used.

Sparkling Shiraz is something Sarah and I thoroughly enjoy drinking but had never dreamed of making. During my time in various wineries, none were making Sparkling Shiraz, insisting it takes too much time, costs too much money, and is very finicky. It turns out they were right! Nonetheless, we persisted.

Sarah had the bright idea to decant some of the 2017 cleanskins still sitting in warehousing, allowing us to create a wine with some complexity and substance straight off the bat.

The idea was good, and the Sparkling Shiraz base wine was born. My Dad, Mickie, and I decanted bottles of 2017 on a rainy day in June 2023, beefing the blend up with 2022 Shiraz and a tickle of 2023 for variety.

Sparkling Shiraz base wines need a host of procedures carried out on them, and that’s before you make it bubbly. Fortunately, the team at VinPac Angaston have the equipment and know-how to make Charmat Method Sparkling. We dispatched the base wine to them, and they walked us through the process from start to finish.

Our 2023 release of NV Noble Sparkling Shiraz is comprised of Shiraz from our 2017, 2022 and 2023 vintages. With a delicious 1% addition of Dutschke Fortified Shiraz (approx. 10 years old), the wine has complexity, fruit and depth all at once.

Wine Details
Region Barossa Valley, South Australia
Bottling Date September 2023
Variety Shiraz
Volume 750ml
Alcohol Volume 14%
pH 3.38
TA 6.62 g/L
Sugar 18.9 g/L
Vegan Friendly
No fining agents used.
Vintage Notes

Sparkling Shiraz is something Sarah and I thoroughly enjoy drinking but had never dreamed of making.

During my time in various wineries, none were making Sparkling Shiraz, insisting it takes too much time, costs too much money, and is very finicky. It turns out they were right! Nonetheless, we persisted.

Sarah had the bright idea to decant some of the 2017 cleanskins still sitting in warehousing, allowing us to create a wine with some complexity and substance straight off the bat.

The idea was good, and the Sparkling Shiraz base wine was born. My Dad, Mickie, and I decanted bottles of 2017 on a rainy day in June 2023, beefing the blend up with 2022 Shiraz and a tickle of 2023 for variety.

Sparkling Shiraz base wines need a host of procedures carried out on them, and that’s before you make it bubbly. Fortunately, the team at VinPac Angaston have the equipment and know-how to make Charmat Method Sparkling. We dispatched the base wine to them, and they walked us through the process from start to finish.

Our 2023 release of NV Noble Sparkling Shiraz is comprised of Shiraz from our 2017, 2022 and 2023 vintages. With a delicious 1% addition of Dutschke Fortified Shiraz (approx. 10 years old), the wine has complexity, fruit and depth all at once.

Reviews & Awards

24 sparkling wines for 2024 – J’aime Cardillo, Halliday Wine Companion

Celebrate the new year with some of the best Australian sparkling wines.
View article

93 points – Brendan Black, WinePilot

I never get tired of trying a sparkling Shiraz, which is seen as probably the Aussiest wine around. It shows a lovely mix of black, red and blue fruits, as well as some tertiary complexity of smoke and dried fruits. With a creamy mouthfeel and bright fruits, the wine is balanced and fills the mouth with flavour. A very nice sparkling to serve at Xmas time.

93 points – Ken Gargett, WinePilot

If ever there was a wine which epitomised the concept of love-it-or-hate-it, it must be sparkling Shiraz. I have friends from offshore who insist that it must be a joke; others who won’t let me visit unless I bring them a few bottles. It is often called the perfect wine for Christmas dinner, but that is selling it short. If you like it, and I most certainly do, a wine for any time! Made from Barossa Shiraz, this is a cracker. Deep purple in colour, we have notes of plums and chocolate, dry herbs, tobacco leaves and cloves. The palate sees a real touch of chocolatey sweetness, but it is well balanced. Good length, the wine exhibits energy and freshness. Delicious. Now for five years.

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