BRIGHT BY NATURE
Snapper splashing in the shallows, festivals and BBQs, the fragrant twist of citrus and delicious slices of stone fruit. There’s nothing like summer to explore tastes and sensations, and UNO wine columnist Jess Easton has found her version of sunshine in a bottle.
PHOTO JAMIE TROUGHTON @ DSCRIBE MEDIA
Every so often, something so outrageous skips across your palate and the sheer joy of it is almost like a slap to the face.
I’ve written before about Albariño —the Spanish/Portuguese varietal that seems perfectly matched for growing on the North Island̓s sun-soaked East Coast.
It’s already like Kiwi summer in a glass, but now the crew at Albariño Brothers have added bubbles. And the resulting Méthode Ancestrale — nicknamed ‘Bubbly Fish’ — is fantastic.
Méthode Ancestrale is the oldest method of production, fermented in the bottle which does great things to the texture of the bubbles. Itʼs much more like a sparkly dance, with the hint of foam, rather than a heavy fizz, and allows all the brightness and zest of the Albariño grapes to shine through.
Winemaker Ollie Powrie explains he and his fellow Albariño Brothers collaborators Shaye Bird and Ant Saunders have used a champagne yeast.
“We wanted the wine to have great character but not too much fruitiness,” says Shaye.
And they spent considerable vintner hours disgorging the wine to cut down on any sediment. We’ve already served the distinctive gold-and-pink drop to several functions at Saint Wine Bar and the response has been phenomenal. People love it, and at just 11.5 percent alcohol, itʼs a chilled-out way to start a social occasion. The tasting notes hint of nectarine and peach, while the style is more refined than Pét-Nat.
The Albariño grape thrives in New Zealand’s maritime, coastal-growing regions and delivers a uniquely expressive style, which naturally pairs with the seafood bounty on offer here. The slightly warmer nights are perfect to tame the natural high acidity of Albariño and it's very resistant to humidity and rain coming in from the ocean.
Making a bubbly version seemed to Ollie like a match made in high-summer heaven.
“It’s in our DNA to have fun with our winemaking styles and we also want our wines to have a real sense of place, focusing on the incredible vineyard sites in Gisborne and Hawke’s Bay and the growers behind these wines,” he explains.
Jess Easton is a director and owner of Kitchen Takeover and Saint Wine Bar, complementing her career as a Tauranga-based lawyer.
