The Tight Cluster
Sparkling
When picking the grapes for this wine, Smalltown Vineyards looked for tight clusters of Shiraz grapes as they tend to have more concentration and better flavor than loose clusters… thus the name… simple!
Barossa Valley
Australia
Food Match
All sorts of things would pair nicely from an eye catching aperitif, duck pâté, juicy rare steak, fall off the bone lamb shanks, to the perfect wine to wash down a sticky chocolate cake!
Tasting Notes
Red, sparkling, luscious and moorish! A bloody brilliant sparkling red – why are there not more of these around?! As you pour this tasty wine into your glass, you're instantly captivated by the beautiful rich red nectar with fine spiraling bubbles. The first whiff is of lovely leathery aromas and dark red fruit. When the delicate bubbles hit your tongue, soft cracked black pepper mingled with dark spices of cloves and star anise burst forth. Fruit driven, soft with nuances of well rounded raspberry jam – there's such a lovely blob of fruit in this wine, it is simply delicious!
Production
The initial wine saw some new oak, but was then transferred into older neutral oak once it was decided to hold the wine back. The blend was put together three years later and the wine underwent a secondary fermentation in the bottle. After approximately 13 months, the winemakers decided the wine was ready and decanted the juice into tank and adjusted the sugar. They sourced some fabulous young fortified Shiraz for the liquoring. This wine has been made a touch drier than most other sparkling Shiraz's on the market.