Finishing Touches to the 2021 Blanc de Noirs
Blanc de Noir wines from the wonderful 2021 vintage with varying dosage
Blanc de Noirs 2021
BASE WINE
The pinot noir grapes for our Blanc de Noirs are grown in the old Partalunga Vineyard, once owned by the Seppelts in the Adelaide Hills. A very old site that grows wonderful grapes. This vineyard was planted to pinot noir in 1980, and since the 2018 vintage has been the source of initially dry red grapes, but now pinot noir grapes for our Blanc de Noirs.
WINEMAKING
Tirage: Yeast and sugars are added to start the second fermentation and the wines are bottled (and topped with crown caps).
Secondary Fermentation: (inside the bottle) The second fermentation adds about 1.3% more alcohol and the process creates CO2 which is trapped inside the bottle thus carbonating the wine. The yeast dies in a process and remain in the bottle.
Aging: Wines are aged on their lees for a period of time to develop texture in the wine. Champagne requires a minimum of 15 months of aging (36 mos for vintage Champage). Our new release has spent 24 months on lees. We also retain some of the wines for further aging on lees. These will be released at a later time as a late disgorged wine.
The 2021, 2022 and 2023 base wines at various stages through the process. The joys of vintage variation!
DISGORGEMENT & Dosage
Disgorging essentially removes the sediment from bottle. The bottles are placed upside down into freezing liquid which causes the yeast sediment to freeze in the neck of the bottle. The crown cap is then popped off momentarily which allows the frozen lees to shoot out of the pressurized bottle.
Dosage: A mixture of wine and sugar is added to fill bottles and then bottles are corked, wired and labelled.
OUR NEXT RELEASE
The 2021 Hayes Family Wines Blanc de Noirs will be released in October 2023. One not to be missed.