These are the first 2014 Howard Vineyard Blanc De Noir tasting notes ever created because we had the world premiere while recording episode 161 of The Adelaide Show podcast.
It was an honour that Tom Northcott, executive winemaker, entrusted us with this tasting even though it might be expected because he is a former housemate of fellow guest, Dougal McFuzzlebutt, and Tom and Steve are great buddies from years back.
Be that as it may, this is the first time Howard Vineyard has produced a Blanc De Noir, which is a white, sparkling wine made from red wine grapes.
The grapes were handpicked in 2014 and Tom reckons he did about 5 per cent of them, given the operation is a small one where everybody pitches in to get things done.
Admittedly, it was a small production with only 200 dozen made but nonetheless, we think that’s a fair effort.
PS Tom mentioned how much winemaking is like farming, hence this bottle shot taken directly on mother earth! He also explained how his business name should be Howard Vineyards, plural!
2014 Howard Vineyard Blanc De Noir tasting notes
These grapes came from the Lobethal vineyard which is very cool site in a cool climate region (The Adelaide Hills), which is perfect for sparkling wine production. The other vineyard is at Nairne.
On the whole, our tasting panel agreed this Blanc De Noir was dry and crisp on the palate (about one gram of sugar, which is very low), hints of biscuit and citrus mid palate with a cusp of minerality around the edges.
Steve said he was about to announce caramel but without the caramel body, in the end he settled for either the shadow of caramel or haunted by caramel, to which, Tom agreed and said those comments might find their ways into the official notes.
You can learn more about this wine and hear our live tasting, about three minutes in, using the audio player below.
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