Tyrrell’s Blanc de Blancs 2016

The wine world, like any other, is faddish and if you were to think of sparkling wine, any sparkling wine, the Hunter valley would be pretty far down the list, if not at all. But Tyrrell’s can always be relied upon to make at the very least, ‘good’ wine and some the greatest of all. So it’s no surprise that a Tyrrell’s late disgorged sparkling wine, made out of chardonnay is very, very good. And you have to ask yourself; do i want to drink Champagne or sparkling wine? If the answer is not Champagne, or some sparkling wine made to taste like Champagne, then this is just about as good as it gets.

What I love about this wine, apart from the fact that it’s so darn delicious, is that it actually tastes like chardonnay, more specifically, Hunter Valley chardonnay. The bubble is delicate, the palate is rich, soft, plump and fresh. Fresh white flowers, citrus blossom, white and yellow peach, lime, honey, cream and pastry combine to make an utterly delicious bottle of sparkling. With 8 years on lees, the wine has lost none of its freshness, rather, gaining in breadth and mid palate richness. Long on flavour and brilliantly versatile. Norris at Waters Wine Co

Using the high-acid, low-pH chardonnay grapes of the Hunter, Tyrrell’s has crafted their second late-disgorged Blanc de Blancs, sourced from the dry-grown Tyrrell family-owned Casuarina Vineyard, planted in 1980. The house-made disgorging liqueur was blended from 23-year-old Vat 47 chardonnay stock and a 10-year-old brandy spirit. Even after eight years on lees, the wine remains remarkably fresh and tight, showing only faint signs of development, with the fruit sitting right on the cusp of ripeness. The wine reveals itself slowly, taking a moment to open. Pour into a wide-base glass and watch the savouriness rise, the complexity deepen and the palate expand. 93 Points – Halliday Wine Companion

The fruit for this wine comes entirely from the dry-grown Casuarina Vineyard, planted in 1990. The Casuarina Vineyard in located on Hermitage Road, only a couple of hundred metres north of our iconic HVD Vineyard. The sandy, alluvial soils on this site are ideal for growing super-premium whites.

The 2016 growing season was one that started with great promise with our wettest winter in nearly a decade. Perfect conditions for budburst and flowering were followed by an unsettled summer consisting of hot days and wild storms until the first week of January, before entering a dry spell that allowed the Chardonnay grapes to reach optimal ripeness for super-premium sparkling production.

100% Chardonnay fruit. Handpicked on 14 January 2016 and hand sorted in the vineyard. The fruit was then lightly pressed before primary fermentation in stainless steel at the Tyrrell’s Estate winery. The wine then spent approximately nine months on gross lees before undergoing tirage bottling on site at Tyrrell’s winery, by Chief Winemaker Andrew Spinaze and the winery team in October 2016.

Secondary fermentation took place in the bottle with a specific yeast strain for sparkling, hand selected by our Andrew Spinaze to give purity, freshness, brightness and complexity to the resulting wine. The wine then spent approximately 8 years on lees before being disgorged in July 2024. The disgorging liquor was house made using aged (23-year-old) Vat 47 Chardonnay stock and a 10-year-old brandy spirit.

The nose is pure and precise, exhibiting elegant floral notes, citrus and a hint of aged complexity from the extended maturation time on lees before disgorging. The palate also shows the purity of Chardonnay made in a traditional sparkling style with flavours of green apple, lemon, white peach and brioche. Alcohol – 12.0%. Tyrrell’s notes