Our first Bubbly is Bottled

John Worontschak of Litmus Wines and Marcus Sharp
 supervise the bottling of our first bubbly

Earlier this week I watched our first sparkling wine being bottled.

Since we planted our vines in 2009 and 2010, the weather has been against us and harvests have been extremely difficult. Non the less we have produced some excellent base wine which will hopefully result in a first class English bubbly.

The first Albury Estate Sparkling is a blend of juice from the grapes harvested in 2011 and 2012 and includes all the varietals grown on the vineyard including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and some Seyval. Only 1524 bottles have been produced which should be available for sale in time for Christmas 2014.

It only took around 30 minutes to bottle the wine using specialist equipment from France. Some yeast and sugar is added to start secondary fermentation in the bottle which gives the wine it's fizz, following which the wine will be left to develop it's character in the bottle for at least 18 months. This process is known as Method Traditionale or Methode Champenoise in France.

Can't wait!