This is one of my last review on the old Wineops’ site… I hope you’ll enjoy!
Producer: De Bortoli
Wine: DB Family Selection Sparkling Brut
Vintage: NV
Grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
Origin: Australia, South-Eastern Australia
Price range: 8-10€ (Alko)
Available at Alko: Yes (02/14), 511387
It is not common for me to taste entry level wines. They tend to be pretty catastrophic, though I had a few decent experiences with Cono Sur or Fe.Vi. …
This wine appeals by its uncommon closure: a screw cap. This means that the pressure in the bottle cannot be as high as in traditional wines, this is most certainly a wine made with a Charmat method, as opposed to Champagne or traditional method. In Charmat method, you transformed all the wine in a pressurised tank into sparkling wine. There are two consequences. First the pressure is never as high as in Champagne (meaning, less bubbles, less delicate sparkling effect). The second consequence is that you cannot gain complexity from bottle ageing on yeasts since the wine cannot be stored long enough in contact of them prior bottling.
There are some example of great success in producing wines this way: in Asti, among Prosecco…
In this case, I am obliged to say that I rarely tasted a less interesting wine. Besides, I cannot really even call it wine. This is merely water with bubbles. There is no taste, the bubbles feels like added gas… a bit like a cheap sparkling water. As a wine, this is a preposterous: a bad joke, ridiculous! I would rather advise not to buy it. In the same category, you can find a basic sparkling by Cono Sur (worth 10 times the one extra euro). But I must say that it is not the first time I am disappointed with a wine by De Bortoli, especially from this DB Family Selection brand line.
Wineops’ rating: 32/100 ; 0 0
Wineops 