A Master Glass in Bubbles: The new sparkling wine-speak

Pieter Ferreira (top image), cellar master at Graham Beck Wines, presented a master class in the science and wine-speak of bubbles and sparkling stemware.

Media attended a sparkling wine tasting with a difference at The Stack in Cape Town in October. Over a tasting of new releases of Graham Beck MCC, Pieter “Bubbles” Ferreira demonstrated “there is life beyond the flute” – and how the same sparkling wine looks, smells, tastes and performs differentially in a traditional and contemporary flute, competition show glass and designer champagne glass.

This was a lesson in the new sparkling wine-speak. Champagne terminology appeals to the inner nerd in all wine geeks – rolling over the tongue as effervescently as a glass of Cap Classique. Over a power-point presentation of the latest French research, we stared deep into our glasses to spot the visible evidence of “vortexes”, “nucleation sites”, “fliers”, “clusters of disintegration”, “the dead zone” and “the free surface”. This was starting to sound like an apocalyptic post-nuclear scenario not wine tasting.

Since selling off the silverware – Graham Beck’s still wine brands – the company has refocused on its sparkling wine operations – and stemware. Company CEO Chris du Toit announced, “Over the next five years, we are making a total new investment of R150 million in our cellar, including Madiba Five, which will increase total production and storage capacity to 250 000 cases and eventually six million bottles. We aim to make Graham Beck the leading sparkling wine brand in the world”. Beck also plans to extend lees time from 17 to 24 months on all non vintage MCCs – and to extend plantings of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir in Robertson to fifty ha.


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