Eddie McDougall says to his The Flying Winemaker (TFW) team: Let’s win some awards this year! And there we have it. At a ceremony in Tasmania on Monday this week, The Flying Winemaker Prosecco NV was named Best Prosecco in the Prosecco class at the prestigious Australian Sparkling Wine Show 2024. It is certainly a great bottling: lean and pristine; refreshing and floral. It was aged in bottle for eight months before release for added complexity and development.
Lilian Carter, Australia and New Zealand Oenologist at TFW proudly accepted the award – and she was all smiles of course! “It is single vineyard and 100% single varietal (the Glera grape) made in the King Valley,” she says, where conditions are cool. Cool conditions mean the grapes ripen slowly and retain lovely natural acidity – so long as they are harvested at the right time.
Although the bottling is created entirely from the 2023 harvest, it is NV in style, meaning this wine is consistent from year to year – an achievement reached through meticulous vineyard management. The house style seeks lightness and energy, with a fine and persistent bead, and because it is produced according to the Charmat method (as opposed to the traditional method utilised for Champagne production), it does not show any heavy yeasty or bready characters. Eddie adds that it is also perfect for spritzers because it finishes so fresh and dry (much dryer than most Italian Prosecco).
Is it more difficult to make sparkling wine as compared to still, because of the secondary fermentation process, which might have a mind of its own?! “You can use your experience to project, it isn’t that complicated to do” says Lilian, though this is clearly where a sound knowledge of chemistry comes in, and notions like holding bead in suspension! “You can predict according to the base wine you start with, how it will inform the secondary fermentation.”
To finish, perhaps a point of clarification is required for anyone reading this who thought Prosecco was a made-in-Italy brand! In fact, the term has long been associated with Charmat-method sparkling wine in Australia. However, for the 2024 vintage, TFW is pioneering with a new branding for its sparkling Glera on export markets: Charmat Blanc. A shipment of this, which states Glera on the back label, is already on its way to Singapore. It may be that other producers pick up on this great-sounding moniker, and Charmat Blanc becomes a recognisable classification all of its own.
WORDS: ANNABEL JACKSON