2022 Apogee Deluxe Vintage Brut

96 pts
Premium vintage Tasmanian Sparkling from one of the country's most respected Sparkling winemakers, Andrew Pirie.

Price:
Sale price$68.00
Stock:
In stock, ready to ship, only 2 units left
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Description

Star sparkling winemaker Andrew Pirie continues to build on his legacy with another wonderful release of his rich, inspiring Apogee - a blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.

This is made in the traditional Champagne method - a quarter of the base wine was matured in oak cask and the wine spent over three years on lees before disgorgement.

Look for palate richness, yeasty nuttiness, creamy notes and some bracing saline/ grapefruit feels. A truly complex wine.

This is a stunning premium example of Tasmanian bubbles and one of the most exciting Sparkling projects in the country.

96 points
"Pale in the glass with a fine, energetic bead and mousse. Aromas of green apple and citrus fruits alongside hints of crushed shell, clover blossom, freshly baked pastries, shiitake, sea breeze, ozone, flint and stone. It's all about precision and tension on the palate, the fruit propelled forward on a rail of crystalline acidity, gaining velocity before resolving in a gentle fan of citrus, grilled nuts and fresh pastry. It's in wonderful form."
- Dave Brookes (Halliday Wine Companion)

96 points - "Pale in the glass with a fine, energetic bead and mousse. Aromas of green apple and citrus fruits alongside hints of crushed shell, clover blossom, freshly baked pastries, shiitake, sea breeze, ozone, flint and stone. It's all about precision and tension on the palate, the fruit propelled forward on a rail of crystalline acidity, gaining velocity before resolving in a gentle fan of citrus, grilled nuts and fresh pastry. It's in wonderful form." - Dave Brookes (Halliday Wine Companion)

Customer Reviews

TH E VIN TAG E
Varietal composition: 39% Chardonnay, 45 % Pinot Noir, 12% Pinot Gris (aka Fromenteau in Champagne), 4% Pinot
Meunier. Pinot Gris, an official grape for Champagne, is occasionally used with great success in our blend to heighten
acidity in warm years.
The key to this wine is the terroir of the Apogee Vineyard located near Lebrina in northern Tasmania. The soil type is
ferrosol, an acidic basalt-derived soil, which has a deep, porous and well-drained clay-based profile based on
decomposing rock. The climate is cool, humid and defined as Cfb, in common with famous regions in Europe, according
to the Köppen-Geiger classification. The region is defined by rolling hills, soaring wedge-tail eagles and diving
platypuses. The climate at Apogee, on average, is as cool as Champagne: Apogee GST (average growing season temp)
is 14.7⁰C, like Ay and Damery in Champagne, which are at the warmer end of that cool district.
The 2022 season was warmer than 2021 and slightly warmer than average. Rainfall was also around average during the
growing season and the ripening months were relatively dry with only 38 mm total in the key ripening months of
February. Harvest date for all varieties of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier, Pinot Gris took place on 31 March
2022 which is a few days later than average.
__________
WIN EMA K ING
The blend of grapes described above was made at harvest, a vineyard blend, and grapes were hand-picked and whole
bunch pressed with oxidative handling methods to enhance complex flavours and degrade pigment derived from the
black pinot noir skins. The oxidative pressing makes sparkling more complex and less fruity. It was tiraged (bottled with
yeast) on 1 November 2022 and is currently disgorged (yeast removed) after around 30 months on lees.
___________
DELUXE METHOD
Apogee has adopted this description of its Traditional Method to highlight the fact that it is seeking not only to match
ordinary Champagne but is also striving to emulate Deluxe Cuvées by nuancing all the vineyard quality factors with
carefully chosen winemaking methods destined to enhance quality and complexity. Single vineyard status plus
winemaking interventions such as the use of oak in primary fermentation and aged wine in liqueurs are choices not
available to mass-produced Champagne.

Price Bracket $51 to $100
Type Sparkling
Body Full Bodied
Country Australia
Region Tasmania
Australian State TAS
Reviewed By Halliday Wine Companion
Critic Score 96
Size 750ml
Vintage 2022
Closure Cork

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