Vintages with Sparkling Shiraz

[loose_axle]

This is probably a dumb question but I'm going to ask it anyhow. 

One of my friends got their hands on a bottle of Primo Estate Joseph Sparkling shiraz over Christmas as a gift from their ancestral forbears who earn more in a few months than we do in years. They kindly cracked it open and we compared it with a few in the $20-$35 range. They were no match for the Joseph. This sparked us with a desire to taste the other high end Sparkling Shiraz's and this leads me to the question - which is to do with the other high end producers like Rockford and Seppelt, etc - they have NV and differing vintages. Is there a difference? Is one better than the other? Are there vintages to aim for?  I tried googling it but there's almost zero information apart from Ken's great articles in Quill & Pad but they don't quite cover this side of things. 

Many thanks in advance. 

[Fuzz]

Love sparkling shiraz! Always have a bottle at new years. I've not dabbled much with vintage sparkling shiraz, and the ones I've had have only been a few years aged. There's a lot of great nv sparkling reds available in Aus, so I've never bothered going down the rabbit hole of vintages.

[Pvalue83]

I have been lucky enough to be a Stonewaller for a few years so have imbibed (!) a bit of info on Rockford’s magnificent Sparkling Black.
As I understand, it is a NV expression where a multi year solera ‘mother base’ of many years Shiraz are used (topped up with each new years pressings) to produce the annual release. Each annual release is referred to as the xxxx year disgorgement. Rockford’s (also magnificent) annual newsletters usually describe at a high level what goes on in producing this wine (see below) but obviously Ken and others may add more detail/probably correct me.

The only other variants of Rockford Sparkling Black I am aware of are some rare late disgorgement versions (eg I was lucky enough to snag a few magnums of a version which was tiraged in 1995, disgorged in 2016 and released in 2019. Haven’t cracked any of these yet but I’m getting itchy fingers!


And as to your question, as Sparkling Black is a NV (and therefore in theory smoothing out intra-year differences) the only dynamic is the in bottle age (eg as at today - the 2016 disgorgement has had a further 8 years bottle age vs 2020 disgorgement which has had 4 years bottle age).

You can buy older disgorgements from time to time on Lawsons (with all usual caveats of provenance and buying blind) but otherwise to source current year disgorgement Sparkling black there are only a couple of options:

1) visit Rockford winery cellar door somewhat close to release to ensure they have stock (I think Oct is usual release date).
2) sign up to become a stonewaller which means you will be able to buy 6 bottle annual allocation. I think this takes approx 5 or so years so you have to be patient!

I haven’t tried many of the other top tier sparkling Shiraz’s but obviously know of Seppelt’s Show Reserve Sparkling Shiraz which is vintage and only released in vintages which are considered appropriate so the quality would be high with every release. 08, 07 and 04 are all rated pretty highly on cellartracker. Hope this helps a little


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[loose_axle]

Yeah you're right Fuzz and that's generally where I sit. Always terrible when you try something at the high end of the spectrum and it becomes a law of diminishing returns. 

Thanks Pvalue83 that is a huge help, really appreciate you digging into and putting that info up!

[Puros Y Vino]

Love Sparkling Shiraz as well. It's hard to find here (in Toronto). Our govt liquor monopoly used to carry some varieties but stopped. It didn't catch on for some reason. The closest I can get is Lambrusca. But often they are a bit high on the sugar content, which I'm not a fan of. I've had SS vintages as far back as 2014 and swore I'd let a few age for at least 10+ years. Didn't happen. Like the stuff too much!  

[Ken Gargett]

joseph, rockford, Seppelt show the stars, but lehmann, melton, bests and a good few others make crackers. some make it with solera systems and others as single vintages. for me, much more about the maker. occasionally you see some very old seppelts - from the late forties and the mid sixties pop up for auction. these days, very expensive and very rare. but they are sensational. becoming a stonewaller is a good idea and i think the advice is correct, it does take five to ten years. it was a reward for those buying from the mailing list for years. you can get on the mailing list today but you might have to wait quite a few years for an allocation for either the black shiraz sparkler or the basket press shiraz. 

my thoughts would be don't worry about vintages for these wines, worry about producer. and when you have one you like, grab what you can. supplies are very limited. 

[loose_axle]

Thanks Ken, much appreciate that info and advice. Will see what I can find! 

[BrightonCorgi]

Don't recall ever trying one. Not sure if it's something on the shelf here or not.