Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
This rivals good Champagne in its toasty, buttery-brioche richness, then adds cashew and citrus for an assertive blast of balanced flavor. Drink this fine vintage sparkler over the next 10 years or so.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2010 Vintage Cuvee Pipers River is delicately scented of peaches and cream with hints of brioche, marzipan and honey drizzled pears. The palate is finely structured with small, persistent bubbles and a lovely, soft, creaminess that is lively and fresh but finishes gentle and harmonious.
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.