One of the best bubblies made in New Zealand, and always a vintage wine with the grapes 100% from one year and 100% Pinot Noir. Tastes dry, yeasty fresh with notes of red berry flavours in a full bodied bubbly with a long finish.
Long ageing on tirage – aka lees (decomposing yeast cells) in bottle - provides depth, body and a lingering finish. 

Winemaker Clive Jones launched Nautilus Winery's sparkling wine programme and is on a constant mission to refine these already outstanding wines, which comes through in the two different sparkling wines he makes. The rose is always a single vintage wine and expresses the depth and richness of Pinot Noir made in the traditional method of sparkling winemaking with long lees aging. This wine is super fresh flavour, has a full body and long, crisp, refreshing finish. 

One of Marlborough's best bubblies, Nautilus is modelled on Bollinger Special Cuvee and aged for three years before release - a long ageing time that provides depth, complexity of yeasty flavours and it retains freshness... This dry, full bodied, deliciously yeasty sparkling wine is a blend of 71.4% Pinot Noir and 28.6% Chardonnay. All grapes are hand picked, fermented with a champagne yeast with only the first run of juice going to fermentation to retain a fineness in flavour and texture. The wine typically contains 5 to 15% of reserve wines, held back from previous vintages, to add complexity and consistency to the wine. 

It is aged on lees in bottle for three years prior to disgorgement, which takes place regularly to ensure every bottle on the market remains fresh in flavour. 

Winemaker Clive Jones creates a consistently vibrant sparkling wine here which has pronounced yeasty, fresh bread aromas and rich savoury flavours. 

Nautilus is a member of Methode Marlborough, a group of quality minded winemakers in the country's biggest wine region, who have dedicated themselves to producing sparkling wines with a minimum of 18 months aging in the bottle and made 100% from grapes grown in their region.

THE DRINKING
With hand-picked Chardonnay grapes in late summer, this Blanc de Blancs is a rustic and unfussy wine with a foamy mousse and biscuit and freshly baked bread aromas. It’s refreshing, fruity and perky on the palate with layers of pear, cherry and orange zest. To be enjoyed during the summer months, well chilled to quell that dissolved CO2. Unfiltered and unfined, this is a charming lo-fi natural wine.

THE GROWING
We will always remember 2021 as the perfect vintage for our dry farmed vines; as though I had direct dial to Hughie the weather god, we were blessed with decent dollops of rain at the optimum times during the growing season, much appreciated as our vines were recovering from the drought conditions of 2020. The one brix a week rule book was thrown out the window in 2021 and we had to be on our toes, ready to pick at a moment's notice, as the brix (sugar levels) were rising on a daily basis.

THE MAKING
Hand-picked single clone 95 Chardonnay grapes from our 'Puriri' block were whole bunch pressed and the juice put into a stainless-steel tank where it was cold settled for 24 hours then racked into its fermentation tank. No yeast or additions were made, apart from some organic yeast nutrient, to help to complete the wild ferment. The decision when to bottle is always a challenging one, too much unfermented sugars and you have a too fizzy bottle rocket in your hands, too little sugars and you have all sausage without the sizzle. Much like the picking decision, I had to base my bottling decision on experience, taste and sugar levels. The ferment tank was chilled down to 2 degrees C for 48 hours then lifted onto my trailer, driven back to our vineyard and gravity bottled at Zeelandt Brewery by the same crew who picked the grapes.

TECHNICAL NOTES
PICKING DATE: 4 March 2021
pH: 3.38
ACIDITY: 5.47
RS: 1.34
BOTTLING: 7 April 2021
F(SO2): 8.8T
(SO2): 24

Bold, bright, fruit salad in a glass; that's what sparkling Sauvignon Blanc is all about and it's a lively, lovely fresh new spring white. The bubbles in this wine come from tank fermentation to preserve the naturally fresh fruit flavours of this vibrant wine. 

An alluring bouquet of wild strawberries and cream with a touch of spice, followed by delicate cranberry, ruby grapefruit and and a hint of shortbread.  Vibrant, focused and beautifully balanced. 

Vineyard This wine is from our BioGro certified organic and Demeter certified biodynamic estate vineyard located in the Bendigo sub-region of Central Otago. The vineyard was planted in 1998 after careful site selection and is the pioneer vineyard in Bendigo New Zealand. The soils on the beautiful north facing slope are Waenga fine sandy loam and Molyneux shallow sandy loam soils. The Pinot Noir clones 10/5 and 5 have been used for the production of this Methode Traditionnelle sparkling wine. Planted with a vine density of 3,800 vines per hectare on 44.55° south. 

Cuvee 100% Pinot Noir, hand-picked on the 8th March 2022 in ideal condition. Bottle fermented and aged on lees for a minimum of 24 months. Riddled and disgorged by hand at Quartz Reef.

94/100: "Delicious, fresh, crisp and dry with a core bouquet of strawberry and fruit spice, fresh brioche and cherry, there’s a lees and miso moment, apple and floral complexity. Dry, salivating, crisp and dry with a firm mousse, finesse and charm and flavours that reflect the bouquet. A lovely example, well made, lengthy and fine. Great drinking from day of purchase through 2029." Cameron Douglas 2023 

5 Stars: “The distinctive, non-vintage wine (5*) I tasted in mid 2021 was estate-grown and hand-picked at Bendigo, in Central Otago. Made entirely from Pinot Noir, it is pink/red, with strong peach, strawberry and spice flavours, yeasty, dry (2 grams/litre of residual sugar) and lingering. A very harmonious wine, it shows excellent maturity.” By Michael Cooper, NZ Wines (Aug 21) 

Winery notes 
"This wine pays tribute to David Herd, who established Marlborough’s first commercial vineyard and winery at Auntsfield in the 1870s. Using David’s original vineyard site and specific Muscat Clone, this wine is made by applying the Methode Ancestrale technique, which can be traced to production of the first sparkling wine “Blanquette de Limoux” in 1531. As in the 153o’s, and 1870’s, fermentation with natural yeast is completed in bottle. The result is a wine that honours the foundational work of our ancestors and celebrates continued discovery and pleasure.

With each bottle being it’s own fermentation no two bottles are exactly the same. With little sulphur in bottle, this wine evolves in the glass. Initially this wine has fresh aromas of fresh apple, elderflower, nashi pear with hints of mint, and wild honey. In the glass, the brighter apple and pear notes dissipate and reveal more of the Muscat floral and exotic spice aromas. The palate has a fresh and crisp acidity, with tangy green apple. It is light and lively. With a slight brioche and almond complexity giving some generosity to the palate at this early stage of life.

The historic Petits Grains Muscat block is exactly where it all started at Auntsfield in 1873. These vines are trained along the old wire and Manuka posts as they historically were. This block has the potential for heavy crops, so we spend a lot of time carefully removing leaves very early in the season before flowering to reduce the bunch sizes and number of berries that set. Each bunch is carefully tended to during the growing season as this variety is fragile and requires optimum conditions to fully express the incredible aromatics of Muscat.

Limited Edition of just 820 bottles produced."

Cloudy Bay Wines first made its name with inimitable Sauvignon Blanc and has since forged a reputation for top quality wines made in a range of styles, of which Pelorus bubbly punches significantly above its weight. It’s made using the same winemaking methods as champagne, which provides this wine with its creamy, rich, flavoursome style, full body and dry finish. It is typically aged on lees for two years before the bubbly is disgorged, corked and labelled. It contains 8 grams of dosage per litre, which makes it taste dry with the balance of fresh acidity in the wine.

It offers stunning value at this price.  

A blend of 66% Pinot Noir and 34% Chardonnay this Methode Traditionnelle has had a minimum 3 years aging on lees to produce a finely structured wine rich in complex yeasty aromas and flavours.  Finished in a brut savage style, (4g/l residual sugar) it will enhance any celebration.

Aromas and flavours of green apple and lemon peel, honey suckle and butterscotch. The palate is rich yet refreshing and the mouthfeel is delicate yet persistent.

Gorgeous dry sparkling rose made the same way as champagne by French born, Marlborough based wine pioneer, Daniel le Brun, who marked 40 years of winemaking in New Zealand in 2000. 

Le Brun pioneered methode traditionelle sparkling wines in New Zealand in the early 1980s, releasing his first bubbly in 1985 and marketing it as made the same way as champagne, only at a fraction of the cost. 

This toasty rich, full bodied pink number is made 100% from Pinot Noir grapes which were fermented to 12.5% ABV with 7.5 grams of residual sugar per litre ? almost bone dry and it tastes like it too, with that smidgeon of grapeyness adding beautiful balance. It was aged for 18 months on lees prior to disgorgement. Ongoing disgorgement means fresh wines remain on the market. 

MiruMiru translates to sparkling in Maori and has been trademarked as the name of Jane Hunter's bubblies. Hunter is a fan of pink bubbly and her winemaking team produce this one mostly from Pinot Noir as 55% of the blend with the balance being 42% Chardonnay with a 3% touch of Pinot Meunier. This trio is the classic combination used in the Champagne region where wines must be aged for at least 18 months prior to release on the market. That?s the exact timeframe that Hunter?s winemaking team decided to age this lively, dry pink bubbles for too. It contains 6.4 grams of residual sugar per litre and is a deliciously full bodied expression of sparkling Pinot with Chardonnay adding crispness and balance. 

Member of Methode Marlborough 

The vineyards selected for this wine are Huia Rapaura vineyard and Rose family Kennedy vineyard. 

The grapes were hand-harvested, whole bunch pressed. Juice was racked off to barrels for fermentation  where a warm, fast ferment was encouraged. Base wine underwent full malolactic fermentation. Aged on gross lees in neutral French oak for 14 months. Wine is put on tirage where yeast and sugar is added before bottling. Second fermentation occurred in bottle and the  wine aged on lees for a further 20 months. Hand riddled over 5 weeks and disgorged on 6th December 2021. 

Senses 

Sight: cured salmon pink. 

Smell: Strawberries, cherries and baked bread. 

Taste: Fresh, wild strawberries and strawberry shortcake with a crisp finish. 

Food Matches: Goats cheese platters. Saffron risotto. Proper Crisps with Marlborogh Seasalt

One of our best selling bubblies and for great reason' this is a stunner with creamy smooth flavours and gorgeous zesty bubbles. This sparkling wine is made 100% from Chardonnay grapes grown in Hawke's Bay, which were trucked down to the northern Wairarapa winery, Matahiwi Estate, where winemaker Miles Dineen worked his magic to produce this dreamy creamy bubbly. 

This wine is made in the mould of a blanc de blancs (white of whites) champagne, using Chardonnay grapes from the Dartmoor Valley in Hawke's Bay. The wine gains its richness from lees ageing, which enhances  creaminess and yeasty aromatics. It's a deliciously lemon citrusy wine with depth, complexity and character - outstanding value at the  price.