Winemaker Notes
Clover Hill Vintage Brut Cuvée is an elegant wine with superb length. Truly capturing the essence of the cool climate of Tasmania, a highlight of Clover Hill is its structure and finesse. With a distinct golden hue attributed by yeast development in bottle from over 5 years on lees and the blending of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. This wine displays exquisite nutty and toasted notes on the nose with a hint of seaspray and oyster shell. On the palate, it delivers a seamless crisp acid line with a creamy layered palate indicative to the cool climate of the Pipers River Region of Tasmania. This wine has texture, complexity and persistence which are all trademarks of the house style of Clover Hill.
Blend: 66% Chardonnay, 32% Pinot Noir, 2% Pinot Meunier
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This Chardonnay-dominant, traditional method vintage deftly demonstrates Tasmania's prowess with serious sparkling. Gold hued, it's opulent and heady, with notes of orchard fruit, ginger and crème brûlée. A vigorous mousse on the dry palate leaves room for the tangy fruit and mouthfilling texture. This is special-occasion bubbles but with the price tag of dinner party (if not everyday) drinking.
Representing the topmost expression of a Champagne house, a vintage Champagne is one made from the produce of a single, superior harvest year. Vintage Champagnes account for a mere 5% of total Champagne production and are produced about three times in a decade. Champagne is typically made as a blend of multiple years in order to preserve the house style; these will have non-vintage, or simply, NV on the label. The term, "vintage," as it applies to all wine, simply means a single harvest year.
Directly south of the city of Melbourne and the Mornington Peninsula wine region, the cool-climate island of Tasmania has earned an honorable reputation as the country’s finest producer of Sparkling Wine. Naturally the region also excels in top quality still wines from Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Riesling, all distinguished because of a high natural acidity. Most of the Tasmania vineyards cluster around the eastern side of the island from north to south.