'Anniversary' Blanc de Blanc Sparkling Wine 2020

Woody Nook Wines “Anniversary” Blanc de Blancs 2020 Sparkling is inspired by the Loire Valley’s traditional crémant method, made from 100% hand-picked, estate grown Chenin Blanc. Twelve months on yeast lees prior to release has produced a crisp aperitif style sparkling wine displaying citrus peel, red apple and brioche characteristics. Finishing long with a crisp and clean grapefruit zest palate, fine bead and persistent mousse, together producing a delicious and balanced sparkling wine.

Winemaker's Notes 

1.73 tonne of Gallagher Block, Chenin Blanc was hand-picked on the 30th January 2020 at 10.6° baumé. The fruit was picked early at low pH (3.05) and high TA (titratable acidity 11.7 gms/lt), numbers that are key to producing quality sparkling wine. The base wine was cool fermented (16°C) with IOC18-2007 yeast over four weeks before fining and stabilization. The next stage is called tirage, where sugar and yeast are added to the base wine before bottling in heavy duty sparkling bottles and sealed with a crown seal where it undergoes a secondary ferment stored in crates in a warm room at 18 - 20°C for approximately four – eight weeks. The yeast converts the sugar to alcohol (can increase the overall alcohol by approximately 1%) and carbon dioxide – the bubbles! The now sparkling wine stays in contact with the spent yeast cells (lees), a process called yeast autolysis that provides baked bread characters, the longer the time on lees, the more depth and complexity you will get. After twelve months on lees, our sparkling was machine riddled to settle out the lees, neck frozen then disgorged to remove the lees plug. The sparkling was then dosaged with expedition liqueur (sugar solution) to balance the wine (approximately 5 gms/lt), topped then sealed with a cork and wire (muselet) before finally being labelled.