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Winery News |
 |  | Summer - No Better Time To SparkleSummer is the season for bubbles, when celebrations and fun with family and
friends call for a lighter wine that is - as the person credited with inventing the modern drink claimed - "like drinking the stars." Champagne started as the drink of French kings when they were crowned and hundreds of years later itıs still the number one favourite for celebrations. Sparkling wine and celebrations have marked our history too - with one of our most satisfying competition wins being a Trophy and Gold Medal for Morton Premium Brut at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards in 2003. It remains a favourite with Kiwis during the wonderful warm summer months and long balmy evenings but our winemakers continue to plot and scheme about the wine. They see it as a challenge - how can they make an under $20 sparkling wine, created in the traditional methode way, better every year? One of the secrets is holding back wine from every vintage to back blend this ensures there is a familiar consistency of style in Morton Brut. It also introduces more aged characters and complex yeasty flavours - while also retaining the freshness that makes it such a great summer celebration. Morton Brut is only one of our lineup of stunning sparkling wines that will enhance very occasion. We also produce Black Label, Blanc de Blanc and IQ sparkling wines.
Our premium sparkling wine is the Black Label Methode Traditionnelle 2000. Itıs not produced with every vintage so after eagerly awaiting the release of this wine it has not disappointed. A blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, Black Label is lively and rich with lots of interesting characters coming through from its secondary fermentation. Our Blanc de Blanc is a 100 per cent Chardonnay sparkling made in the traditional style and has been aging on yeast lees for five years. This is a more up front wine, with lifted fruit characteristics and a cleansing acidity on the back palate. Our latest sparkling offering, Morton IQ 7 is available in limited quantities. It started life as Morton Brut and was left on lees in a quiet corner of our temp-erature controlled maturing rooms for seven years. This is a similar technique to "Mis En Cave," as practiced by many of the top Champagne producers. The resulting wine is a superb example of how a good methode traditionnelle benefits from maturing slowly and quietly in a cool cellar. It is a wine of great complexity with delicious nutty, yeasty aromas complemented by subtle fruit flavours. The only problem now is that we now have to wait another seven years before we can do it again. Stay tuned you never know what our winemakers will pull out of a quiet, dark corner next. |
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