Wine with Meg + Mel
The fun + frank podcast which helps you navigate the world of wine. Hosted by Australia's first female Master of Wine Meg Brodtmann, and self-titled Master of Sabrage Mel Gilcrist.
Wine with Meg + Mel
Mousse & bead - is the 'feeling' of a bubble is just wine wank?
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Ever wondered how the right kind of bubbles can elevate a sparkling wine experience? We explore the science and art behind creating perfect bubbles with a story about ultrasonic sound and its impact on wine ratings.
Glassware can make or break your sparkling wine journey, and we dive into why that’s the case with a deep dive into the visual appeal and taste enhancements offered by a $100 hand-blown glass. Join us for a fun and nerdy session full of wine-geek moments!
Wines tasted:
- Riccadonna Prosecco
- Rob Dolan NV Black Label Blanc de Blanc
- Howard Park Jeté Brut Sparkling NV
- Mumm 4 ans
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and TikTok! @winewithmegmel
Wine Bubbles and Politics Chat
Speaker 1Baby's asleep, we are ready to go. Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mel. We are here to help you navigate the world of wine. I'm Mel Gilchrist. I'm joined by a master of wine whose name is.
Speaker 2Meg Brodman. There you go, I'll help you.
Speaker 1Meg, meg, meg Meg.
Speaker 2Brodman. My name is Meg Brodman and I am go. I'll help you.
Speaker 1Reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg, reg about mousse in wine. So we're talking specifically about the bubbles that you find in a sparkling wine, yes, but I have all these definitions and some science.
Speaker 2I found this fantastic article, which I will put a link to.
Speaker 1I love that you've done this. I was just like let's taste some bubbles and see what taste marks.
Speaker 2Yeah, and just so everyone knows it is 8.39 in the morning.
Speaker 1Yeah, we do it right.
Speaker 2So breakfast of champions, yeah.
Speaker 1Okay, so first, what have you been drinking?
Speaker 2What have I been drinking? Well, in talking about bubbles, I had a little bottle, a half bottle, of Asti Spumanti, did you? Yes, so it's just the slightly frizzanti one. It was actually muscated Asti, 5% alcohol, very sugary, very sweet, absolutely delicious. That's very sweet, absolutely delicious. That's very on brand for you. Yes, I know it was a half bottle. I thought what am I ever going to do with it, like no one else will drink it with me. So I just put it in the fridge and opened it and slowly enjoyed it over a couple of days. Oh good on you, that's nice, that's a nice quick one. Fun fact, fun fact. So you know how I'm obsessed with all things politics. You love politics.
Speaker 2I came across this, I don't know where UK voting intention by alcoholic drink preference. So for those of you who don't know, the UK held their general election last Thursday, on Independence Day, which I thought was a bit weird. The Labor government got in 412 seats, absolutely decimated the Tories. But they asked voters what they preferred to drink and then they asked them who their voting preference was for. So Labor voters preferred cider, white wine and red wine by a long margin. The Tories, which is the Conservatives' nickname, their favourite drink was sherry.
Speaker 1I cannot believe that. True drinks sherry. I know right, so they had sherry. I cannot believe that. Does that not?
Speaker 2crack. Drew drinks sherry, I know right, so they had sherry. They also liked a gin and tonic, brandy and whiskey, whereas the Labor voters who clearly drink way more. You can see the red peaks there cider, white wine, red wine, rose, prosecco, gin and tonic equal with the Tories Brandy they liked. They liked whiskey as well. They loved a shandy.
Speaker 1I'm obsessed that someone actually bothered to do this research.
Speaker 2It's so good, it's so nerdy, it's fantastic. I feel like winning. That is really the collision of your two worlds, isn't it? I know it doesn't get more exciting and, as I said to Mel, last Friday, I sat there just refreshing my feed on the Guardian about finding out who took what seat, and it's all very, very exciting. You were happy, I was very happy, and if any of you have watched the Wrexham, welcome to Wrexham.
Speaker 1Yeah the soccer one.
Speaker 2yeah, so Wrexham went red, so they voted for the Labor Party. The party that I wanted to win. Keir Starmer, is now the new leader of the.
Speaker 1UK Parliament. Prime Minister of England, isn't it been like crazy over there they had like a woman who they had like a lettuce?
Speaker 2Yeah, they had Liz Trust, who lasted 49 days. The lettuce lasted longer than her. They had David Cameron came in and then they voted for Brexit, and then we had. He decided he couldn't carry them through, so they had Liz what's her name? Theresa May, wow, and then she was the one who couldn't dance, do you remember? Anyway, really bad. Then they had Boris Johnson absolute, freaking disaster. Then they had Liz Truss, the lettuce lady, and then they had Rishi Sunak, who's richer than King Charles.
Speaker 1Well, should we start like a sub-podcast, that is like specifically, wine and politics Wine collide.
Speaker 2It would be fantastic, do you know?
Speaker 1what I would actually listen to. That it would be fantastic. I would listen to you explaining politics to me, because I don't get it.
Speaker 2So Tories love a glass of sherry. That just goes to show they're a bit older demographic, I would say. And Labor just loves a drink, basically. And the limp Dems? Where do the limp Dems come in most? Because they want a few seats, they come in, oh yeah. Gin and tonic, wow yeah, oh, that's very fun. And a sherry, oh, that's a bit odd. We won't even talk about the Farage party, but anyway, that's exciting. That's exciting.
Speaker 1That just made my.
Speaker 2I'm happy for you, meg. I love this for you. I know I know I love this for you. I know I'm going to make that my background on my computer, I think, because I think it's just really cool, all the graphs, yes.
Speaker 1We'll have to do it in Australia. We'll find someone to commission the research, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2I think it would be beer, though for Labor voters. Yeah, it would, Because there's the whole pub test and I don't know. Anyway, we shall move on. We're wine oh, they probably wouldn't drink anything because you know it's bad for the environment.
Speaker 1I don't know uh no, they drink natural wine for sure natural wine, okay, yeah, orange one, okay moving on um. What we are doing is we have four different kinds of sparkling wine in front of us. I said to meg, let's just do a moose test, because sparkling wine we love to go on about the moose and we we talk about it so much like there's a huge difference and you can really tell and I suspect there's an element of wank. So I'd really like to put it to the test.
Speaker 2So, for those of you who don't know, there's two things that we talk about in sparkling wine. Mousse is when you pour the wine in your glass and it's the froth that accumulates at the top of the glass. That is the actual official definition of mousse. I did not know that. Oh, what's the bubbles?
Speaker 1Bead. The bead is the size of the bubbles. Oh yeah, okay, so I guess I mean the bead. Then.
Speaker 2So the fact is, reading this article in the Smithsonian, there's a guy who's dedicated his life to studying this. He's a French dude and he was obsessed with blowing bubbles as a kid, so we get his whole back story. But it's the proteins released from leaves. Ageing impact on the way the bubbles form and last. So theoretically tank fermented wines shouldn't have such. Should have a bigger bubble, bigger bead and then moose should Because they're not having the leaves?
Speaker 2Yes, because they don't have the sort of budding site but there's a whole heap of science behind it. It depends on the pressure of the bottle and this article seriously I won't go into it because Mel looks like she's going to fall asleep but it's also the amount of dosage in the wine, the cork, that it's aged on.
Speaker 1Yeah, no, no, it's all very interesting. I'm not being sarcastic, it is, but do read this article, because I can't do it justice? Well, no, look at some around it, oh.
Speaker 2I can't because it's very long. Okay, but all the bubbles are extremely important. Proteins in the wine, including the ones from exploded dead yeast cells, stabilise smaller bubbles that make the desired mousse foam at the top of a champagne glass and a sharper pop in the mouth. Sharper pop in the mouth.
Speaker 1So do we care about the foam at the top? I guess I'm talking about bead, what?
Speaker 2we're talking about is, if there's foam at the top, the carbon dioxide is being released at the top of the glass and that can actually affect on how you taste wine, because you're actually breathing in carbon dioxide. So you don't want the carbon dioxide to be released too quickly.
Speaker 1Oh, mel's dragging out her textbook. I'm grabbing the textbook. I swear to God. They call it mousse and wet it. So you're saying that the mousse. So when we pour a wine, that foam at the top is a reliable indicator of how it's going to taste in our mouth. No, no.
Speaker 2If it persists longer, if it doesn't just dissipate really quickly. If it dissipates really quickly, it's releasing carbon dioxide into the glass, and that's why champagne glasses are a bit shaped like that. So in this study they actually looked at the shape of the glass. So a flute will contain the carbon dioxide more than a coop, because the coop will let the CO2 dissipate into the air. Yes, but you're actually drinking some carbon dioxide.
Speaker 1Yes.
Speaker 2Whereas if you have a fine mousse that slowly dissipates, it's releasing the carbon dioxide into the glass at a slower rate, and that will impact the way the wine tastes.
Speaker 1But it releases from the top down.
Speaker 2No, so the bubble comes up from the bottom. Yeah, the mousse forms. Yeah, the mousse is the carbon dioxide in bubble form. Okay, so that's stabilized as a bubble. You know, when you do a bubble bath and sometimes all the bubbles disappear, yes, and sometimes they don't, yes, so we want ones that don't disappear really quickly. Okay, that will give you an indication of the finer bead in the wine. So the bubble will be smaller and there won't be as much carbon dioxide when you take your first mouthful of the wine.
Speaker 1Ah, okay, it's really I did not know this.
Speaker 2Well, let's put it to the test. Well, that's the theory, right, that's the theory. So the first one we're pouring is a Riccadonna Prosecco. So we know this is tank fermented and so it doesn't have any potentially lees ageing Riccadonna Ricadonna is. Is that like famous? Yeah, they make the Estee Spumante. Yeah, but this is their Prosecco. So what we're looking at is the persistence of the bubble at the top, which is pretty dissipated pretty quickly. And I can see the bubbles in here and they're quite big and they're not coming up from the center of the glass. Just so you know, we are using Riedel champagne glasses.
Speaker 1Yeah, so the theory behind champagne glasses, the style that we're using, is kind of like a sharp, big tulip type style. So it's not a flute, but the biggest thing that you want is a pointy bottom, and what that should do is make a beautiful bead of uh, beads, bubbles all come up in a line from the center of the bottom there, so what we're seeing in this glass is that there are bubbles stuck to the side of the glass which are quite big, and then there's finer bubbles just popping all over.
Speaker 2So it's like a.
Speaker 1It's shaped like a yes, and then it goes in a little bit at the top.
Speaker 2But the thing about the mousse is it's not just the of proteins which can make it creamier, but it's also the amount of carbon dioxide. So at 1.5 grams per litre of carbon dioxide you can feel it. It gives that little bite in your mouth. But at three and a half grams it actually hurts when you taste it because it goes up your nose. You've got the carbon dioxide being released into your nose. So this has got what I would describe as a fairly aggressive mousse or beet.
Speaker 1But they dissipate really quickly.
Speaker 2Yeah, but you almost have to squeeze them out because there's too much. It's like Coca-Cola it's too fizzy.
Speaker 1It's fizzy, but it's not.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's weird, but it is Prosecco cervix chilled. That's the other thing that they found. Yeah, it's weird, but it is Prosecco cervix chilled. That's the other thing that they found. If you pour it like a beer, there's more persistent mousse and softer mousse if you pour it straight into the glass, because obviously more carbon dioxide is getting splashed out if you're pouring it straight in. Also, if it's colder, the carbon dioxide stays dissolved longer. So what we're talking about people, despite the terms of moose feed is we're talking about the feel of the bubble in your mouth.
Speaker 1I think it tastes like a Diet Coke that's been in the fridge for like two days.
Speaker 2Yeah well, I don't drink Diet Cokes, I don't know, but it tastes like super oversparked oh that was a little flex.
Speaker 1I wouldn't know, I don't put that into my body. I just don't like it. My body is a temple.
Speaker 2No, my body is a theme park. It is not a temple, it's an amusement park, mate, or it has been. I just don't like coke. It does something to my teeth, yeah, but it's like really sparkly water.
Speaker 1Yes, actually. Yeah, it's like sparkling water. Yeah, it's too aggressive and it's yeah, no, it's not lovely. Anyway, next one I'd better get this a spittoon, seeing as it's 8am, shouldn't I?
Champagne Bubbles and Mouthfeel Analysis
Speaker 2Yes, and I have to drive and go out for lunch. I'll give you just some more science while Mel's getting the spittoon. So this guy has studied. He can actually put bubbles in by putting ultrasonic sound into wine and making it super bubbly and people, just for the visual impact, and people will rate a really cheap wine that's been super sonically bubbled up visually as a good wine. Oh wow, yeah, just basically looking at the number of bubbles that are coming out.
Speaker 1Yeah, so this actually did happen. Yeah, just basically looking at the number of bubbles that are coming out. Yeah, so this actually did happen. When we were doing photography for that super fancy fancy Chandon that came out the photographer they were putting in sugar and they were getting really excited because there was heaps of bubbles, just like everywhere in the glass, and I was like, guys, I know that you're excited about this photography, but that's not a good sparkle.
Speaker 1No Like that's not actually what we want. We want a beautiful line of beads from the bottom is what we're trying to capture. I'm sorry for your photo.
Speaker 2Well, in this study he was saying that he knows of wineries that add egg white because it's a protein to the sparkling wine, so that the mousse really persists in the glass, so that it looks, yeah, I don't know. Anyway, the next one we have is a Rob Dolan Blanc de Blanc. Now, this is a Charmat. So this is a second fermentation in tank method. It's not fermented in bottle and it's not aged on lees. After the second fermentation, however, the base wine before the second fermentation is aged on lees for six to nine months. Okay, so there may be some impact of that of the yeast breaking down in the base wine to give a more creamy mousse. Okay, so we've got three different styles. So the first thing I notice is that the mousse is much more persistent than, like the foam.
Speaker 2That is like a fingernail's width of foam sitting on top and probably takes what 10, 15 seconds to dissipate. Yeah, the bubbles still aren't coming up from the centre. They seem to be coming from the side of the glass. Yeah, but it is a finer bubble and you can look at the top.
Speaker 1They're still definitely coming up vertically. You can see the lines, vertical lines. Yeah, they are.
Speaker 2And you can see that when popping at the top you're still getting a little bit of froth. Yes, so that's kind of the persistent mousse as well. So this is made from 100% Chardonnay Finer, it seems the bubbles more across all of my palate.
Speaker 1Yes, there's more bubbles, but they're less aggressive. They're kind of bubbles, but there's more of them. It's foamy yeah.
Speaker 2Whereas with the Prosecco, I felt they were sitting right in the middle of my tongue and I had to almost squeeze them out on the roof of my mouth, whereas this it's foamy, yeah. Whereas with the Prosecco, I felt they were sitting right in the middle of my tongue and I had to almost squeeze them out on the roof of my mouth, whereas this it goes right across my palate and I can feel the little effervescence. It's like having a warhead, or sherbet. It's all that sherbet-y feeling across your tongue.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2There's a little bit of sugar in there as well, so that's sort of playing around with the flavour.
Speaker 1Yeah, is there more than usual.
Speaker 2Who knows which. It's a non-vintage product, so it just goes. Depends on what's. But yeah, I can notice it, maybe because it's first thing in the morning First thing in the morning.
Speaker 1So this will be interesting actually to compare. So the next one we have is Method Traditionel right.
Speaker 2Yes, I've got a Method Traditionel champagne, because we know champagne has to be aged for 15 months and this is a Moum 4 Orns, so I'm assuming that means either it's been aged on cork for four years you need to look it up or it's been aged on leaves for four years. I didn't. That's my husband's wine, so I'll replace it Pete. So we have the Howard Park Petit Jeté Method Traditionnel Brut Non-Vintage. This is from WA and this we know has been aged on yeast leaves because it's Method Traditionnel.
Speaker 1Yep.
Speaker 2And the mousse is very persistent and very frothy when you first pour it into your glass.
Speaker 1So frothy that was like half the. So when I said, the rug doll in was like a fingernails width, I reckon that was four or five fingernails width About four or five centimetres. So in theory is that meant to be a good thing. Do we say that and go? Oh good.
Speaker 2Well, I think so. So it's sort of saying what's happening is that? This is the theory behind it, if I've read it correctly, is that the proteins in the wine are stabilising the bubble so that it forms that little froth on your beer head, basically on your champagne head or your sparkling wine head yeah. The bead. The size of the bubble is very small here and it is going in a straight line. Is that what we're looking for, mel? It's a little bit wobbly now just by handshaking.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. So it's weird because there's some bubbles sticking around the outside, but when you look in the middle, there is that nice line coming up from the centre still, and that is definitely a creamier mouthfeel.
Speaker 2Texturally, the bubble feels smaller, it feels like it's tickling you.
Speaker 1It's weird. It feels like there's less bubbles than the rubbed on.
Speaker 2Well, that's probably true, because I wasn't expecting that after such a big mousse, Because the proteins are stabilising the bubble, they're combining with the bubble, so it's not feeling as effervescent on your palate. Yeah, so you need to read this article because it's all very sciencey and this is literally. For us it's just a taste test. We're not telling you the true science behind it, but we know that this is method traditional. We don't know how long it's been aged on 18 months on year sleeves. It says on the back. So read the label, Meg. So I wanted to get this one A because I think that they're doing some really interesting stuff over there, and B, just to compare an Australian, good quality Australian sparkling with a champagne. But that definitely feels creamier and softer on my palate.
Speaker 1Do you think the creamier, though, has to do with the like, say, for a Chardonnay, if you were on Lees, it would be creamier. Is the creaminess not to do with the bubbles?
Speaker 2The creaminess is to do with the proteins from the yeast lees and the proteins in the wine.
Speaker 1But so? But like is the base wine creamy? No, nope.
Speaker 2It's acidic. You've tasted?
Speaker 1base wine.
Speaker 2You're working.
Speaker 1Yeah, I know what you're saying, but I mean like the.
Speaker 2Chardonnay. No, because you're picking the Chardonnay at 11.5% 12%. It doesn't have that richness and fatness that we expect from Chardonnay. I just creaminess.
Speaker 1It's weird that bubbles because there's a creaminess, but I feel like there's a bubble and a creaminess, not the bubble is making Imagine when you put a mouthful of sherbet in your mouth and it kind of all effervescents up.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's that kind of creamy feel, as opposed to a warhead where it's just like, oh, that sort of sharpness to it.
Speaker 2And this is mouth-filling and it persists for longer. And for me, the reason I don't drink soft drink is I find the bubble really aggressive and I also like sparkling water that has lower fizz to it, and that's why I think I prefer Method Traditionnelle, because even though the bubble's there, it just feels softer. It doesn't feel like I have to squeeze it out in my mouth. I can let the bubble dissipate naturally with the heat of my mouth.
Speaker 1That persistence is an interesting point. Can I have the Riccadona back please, Mm-hmm, Because when you put it in your mouth it actually does persist Like it's. I can still feel it. It's got the. Yeah, the beautiful bubbles actually hang out there for a while, whereas With the Riccadona Mm.
Speaker 2Oh, do we go back? Is it really going to make it look nasty?
Speaker 1They persist, but not in a good way. They do. They feel aggressive, like go away. They almost hurt. Yes, they do. Yeah, on the side of your tongue.
Speaker 2Yeah, and that's what they think that yeast leaves but also the sugar as well is doing. Basically, it's giving them, it's almost enveloping the bubble. This is not what happens scientifically, so don't hold me to account for this, but I'm trying to explain it visually. It envelops the bubble so that it slowly opens up like a little tulip rather than boop. Yeah, it pops in your mouth.
Speaker 1Okay, so. Yeah, so the MUM4, the mature wine, is clearly labeled to show the number of years spent on leaves rather than a specific vintage year. This will be interesting.
Speaker 2We've got 18 months versus four years. Yeah, and it's good that I can buy it at Dan Murphy's, because I need to replace this Pedro, and it's good that I can bite it down, miffy, because I need to replace this Pedro. I apologise, his boss bought it for him for something.
Speaker 1Oh, that's nice yeah they're nice people.
Speaker 2So big mousse, big mousse, big foam at the top, a little beery.
Speaker 1It dissipates quickly, but it looks thick.
Speaker 2Yeah, it does look thick. And the bubbles there's a lot of bubbles there and they're super small.
Speaker 1See, all the bubbles are coming in a very straight line right from the middle. That is perfection. That's exactly how it should look.
Speaker 2Okay, and apparently from our conversation with Mark from Riedel, didn't he say that they put an etch in the bottom of these glasses as a budding site for the bubbles?
Speaker 1Yes, like, look at that straight line, they are perfect. They're perfect lines going up from the bottom of the glass.
Speaker 2It almost looks like you're drawing lines on wallpaper. Yes, it is so beautiful.
Speaker 1Yeah, they shouldn't be erratic. They should be in beautiful little lines oh yum oh that is good.
Speaker 2Oh yum, oh, that is good, I love champagne. So do.
Speaker 1I.
Speaker 2So very creamy.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Toasty, lots of different flavours, but super soft and gentle on your mouth. You could just drink that all day. Billy, stay asleep. Mum's going to have a few glasses of bubbles.
Speaker 1It's really hard tasting this and not going into tasting notes. In my mind I'm like no, no, no, leave the characters alone, focus on the bubble.
Speaker 2And this is the thing with wine tasting is texture, is mouthfeel, the structural elements of wine is really important For those of you studying diploma and WSCT at every level and MW. It's not just about the flavours, it's about the way that wine feels. You hold that in your mouth and the bubble just slowly feels like it's frothing away in your mouth.
Speaker 1It tickles your tongue. It tickles, it froths in the mouth. If you do a little like, if you move your tongue around, it almost reignites it a little bit, true, yeah.
Glassware Impact on Sparkling Wine
Speaker 2And that just then almost finished quite sharp on my mouth because I kind of did a bit of a, which I don't think you should do with champagne. I just want to compare that to the Petit Jeté.
Speaker 1Yeah, can you please? You've got to redo mine so just because one's 18 months. So to confirm, the Petit Jeté was the method traditional from Hound Park, which is Western Australia. And it just says early picked parcels of fruit that is actually doing a beautiful look at that.
Speaker 2Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1We might. I might try and make an Instagram video to show what we're talking about, to compare what the Ricadona versus one of these method traditional looks like in glass, because it is very different.
Speaker 2I mean look at that mum now, and it's just the finest little bubble rising out. I mean it is beautiful. And this is what again this article in the Smithsonian talks about that we rate sparkling wine on visual cues first. This is true, so we can apparently sonically blast table wine to make it look expensive based on bubbles. Oh God, that's hard, yeah, but then you've got to taste it. Yeah, the mum, definitely there's the feel of it and this is where we'll definitely get that house of it's the feel.
Speaker 1You're right, it's not just.
Speaker 2Well, there's all the yeast-y loveliness.
Speaker 1Which is great, but the feel of it, it is absolutely different.
Speaker 2just that amount of time on these 100%, and this is why I love sparkling wine so much, because it is that feel of a Chardonnay which has got more minerality. So I see that plus the acidity, but it's got that creaminess as well, and so certain producers ageing for different periods of time, if they've got wood, it all impacts on the feel of the champagne, and I really love drinking champagnes that aren't aggressive. I just don't love aggressive wines. Mel's just come back with what looks like a very weird shaped glass.
Speaker 1I just need to rinse it, Can you? What should I rinse it with? We'll do the Prosecco because so this is a sparkling wine glass worth like about $100.
Speaker 2Oh my God, and I just Is this what you use to manage, hand on and?
Speaker 1fancy places. Where this came from.
Speaker 2So it is literally like someone is blowing glass.
Speaker 1It's hand blowing.
Speaker 2And they've got a V at the bottom and it is a circle. It's like an air balloon.
Speaker 1Basically, when we came out with that really expensive glass, really expensive sparkling, I was looking at the Salador and I was like people cannot be drinking that sparkling out of the same old flutes that we use in Salador. So we started buying all these different sparkling wine glasses and this was my favourite. You have the best job. I know, I know it looks obnoxious, but I love how obnoxious it looks.
Speaker 2It looks beautiful because I love. It's enormous, like I would love to do glass blowing.
Speaker 1Yes, I think my lungs are a bit too fucked for that, and how thin it is.
Speaker 2It's so fine, but one of your ones, this one's really fine too, true it?
Speaker 1is so, that usually means it's hand-blown. If it's that, fine, it is literally.
Speaker 2I don't know, not even half a centimetre, maybe four mils wide.
Speaker 1So we're just tacking this on at the end. Meg, tell me if this big, beautiful, amazing $100 sparkling glass makes any difference to.
Speaker 2It looked less frothy, which I think is okay, to it looked less frothy, which I think is okay. The bubble is more active. Yeah, look at that right in the centre. Yeah, it's like super, it's like a volcano. Yeah, now, did you buy these for the change in flavour or the change in texture?
Speaker 1We used them. We tasted a wine in all these different sparkling glasses and we found that the sparkling at least of that specific wine that is beautiful. Right. It was beautiful in that wine glass it's hard to drink out of but it brought the wine to life beautifully. It brought forth interesting flavours. Somehow, like it really highlighted almost like a floral note that wasn't in the other wines, Like it actually changes the wine and evolves it.
Speaker 2Try it, because I think that the mousse looks a little bit more bubbly. Yeah, okay, it's really hard to drink out of because there's no lip, because it goes in.
Speaker 1More mousse, that's interesting.
Speaker 2Wow.
Speaker 1And who makes that?
Speaker 2Lehman.
Speaker 1Lehman, that's it.
Speaker 2Never heard of it.
Speaker 1L-E-H-M-A-N-A. They're German. Yeah, that's $100. Beautiful, isn't it? I love it.
Speaker 2You're going to have to hand wash that tonight, so take home message. Yes, I think for me, the feeling of the mousse, the aggressiveness of the bubble, impacts on my enjoyment of a sparkling wine.
Speaker 1Yeah, like for me. I learnt that it's not just wank, that it's real.
Speaker 2No, it's real, and the more Leigh's contact you have, obviously the creamier the mousse is going to be. That said, something like a Prosecco is meant to be enjoyed as a young, fresh wine. Yes, and we don't analyse Prosecco, absolutely not.
Speaker 1We drink Prosecco at brunch with orange juice in it and have fun. Or Aperol.
Speaker 2Spritz yeah, I mean, the Aperol Spritz was invented for Prosecco at brunch with orange juice in it and have fun. Or Aperol Spritz yeah, I mean, the Aperol Spritz was invented for Prosecco.
Speaker 1I love that. Okay, so that's our episode of Moose. Definitely get some wine, enjoy yourself. Have a think next time you're having sparkling wine, if you can tell, we are going to move on to a final drop. We are looking at a wine, a Matari Durif, from the Riverland so Stars Reach Vineyard. It's called Confluence, so this kind of came from at the start of the year when we were talking about Riverland a bit. Yeah, a few vineyards reached out and said that they've got stuff. Remember the first episode we did? We just did like crap.
Speaker 2So Sheridan wrote us an email talking about Is this Sheridan's one? Yeah, okay, this is. Sheridan Wrote us an email talking about the impact on the whole industry. Now I saw something that she's doing. It's some fucking amazing thing and I cannot remember. I will find it and I will tell Mel. There was something in the newspaper the other day that she's. She's obviously an absolute star of a person in the industry and cares enormously about her home.
Speaker 2So this is Confluence, which is a meeting place where you know all things are yummy. This is obviously from well, they're saying there's a confluence of blueberry and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But confluence means joining. You know where everything comes together. This is what we need to be doing in the Riverland. We need to re well the warmer regions. And when we were talking about doing the Riverland, well the warmer regions as an episode, I said we were going to talk. I was talking to her on email. We were going to talk about Cool Wines, daggy Regions, and she came back and she said no Cool Wines, hot Regions. Yeah, so that's what we called the episode. But she's doing, they are doing some amazing wines. They've got Brightness, luminosity, fruition, sl, slipstream confluence, interstellar, I mean just great.
Speaker 1You know, what's interesting is that we had a grenage there and we were like, nah, let's do the Durif Well.
Speaker 2Matara Durif, you know.
Speaker 1It's called Matara Durif. Legally, do they have to have more Matara than Durif to name it? Yeah, okay, so it's more Matara than Durif.
Speaker 2Unless they're 50-50. I've never tasted Mataro on its own. We have, have we. We did one ages ago, but I don't think we expected to remember everything that we've tasted Well, no, we've tasted a lot of wine.
Speaker 1That's delicious. I am so pleasantly surprised.
Speaker 2I would argue gluten-free. Really, that's when I see gluten-free ham at the supermarket, I'm just like sustainably grown, vegan-friendly. And this is who they are a family of farmers, which is lovely, with a love for the land. We have cared for this patch of paradise in the Riverland for six generations. That's nice. And believe in low-input and regenerative wine grape growing so they can share its goodness and protect. And they just, these guys just seem to be all over the sustainability of the industry and their patch and their region. And this is an absolutely beautiful wine. Pete said to me the other night well, you can do much white, I want red. And so I said, well, we've got heaps of red. And I went through it and nothing grabbed our fancy at all. If I'd had this, this would have been great with my beautiful eye fill at the other night.
Speaker 1This makes me think that giraffe should be blended more Like. Why is giraffe always a single varietal? It actually makes so much sense to add a layer in a blend.
Speaker 2Well, it's interesting you say that because you did put down on our thing that we should be looking at odd blends, yeah, and so I started researching it the other day and I came across the Pinot Chiraz blend, which is a bit trendy at the moment. Yeah, it is, but it had been done by the Hunter for decades. Yeah, but not really shouted about. Yes, decades, but not really shouted about. Yes, and we do do these blends, um, but they do. They always fly under the radar. We are such a nation of single variety. Yes, and jurif has a market. Yeah, it does, but this is light.
Speaker 1It's just like jurif is so interesting, Like there is like a really grunty earthiness that I think would add something, really a really cool layer. Yeah, definitely To a. It's almost it can be too much on its own, but even here, blended with Mataro, it makes so much more sense.
Speaker 2But I mean just looking at the colour, it doesn't have that dark colour of Giraffe and we are seeing younger winemakers taking Giraffe in a new direction. Yeah, they're backing off on the extraction. This is 14.5% alcohol. It's got lots of blueberries and violets. It's quite a light wine even though it's 14.5% alcohol. It's just handled very, very well and I think that helps. And I think, with this, what they're doing, stars Reach seem to be trying to reposition what I call daggy into really fantastic. The labelling's excellent. That wine is fabulous. How much is it? Do we know? No, we get long, but it won't be expensive. Confluence, here we go. Okay, it's not working on my mobile phone.
Speaker 1So the Grignard on Matara Dourif $25.
Speaker 2That is bloody delicious and it's 14.5% alcohol. You don't even notice it.
Speaker 1No, you don't notice it. I did not notice that Good on you.
Speaker 2I would have been so good with my eye fillet the other night. I wish it had been sent to me and not you. So those of you who are doing this sort of stuff with you know, from I hate to say daggy regions we'll take Sheridan's term hot regions. Send I hate to say daggy regions, we'll take Sheridan's term hot regions. Send them in to us. We're really interested in looking at odd slash traditional blends. Yeah, so they may have been traditional but not really talked about. I think we need to talk more about blends basically in Australia.
Glass Quality Enhances Wine Appearance
Speaker 1Okay, cool, well, that was fun. Yeah, that was fun.
Speaker 2But look at oh sorry, yeah In your fancy glass. Look at that, it's like a tornado.
Speaker 1And that is how it should look, Meg that is exactly.
Speaker 2It is literally like Twister coming up and then forming a cloud at the top.
Speaker 1I mean that speaks to the quality of glass and the quality of wine. Oh my God, I will put up a video. That is exactly how it should look and like. Look at these other ones Dead, dead. It's bloody beautiful. Have fun with your sparkling.
Speaker 2Definitely we're having fun without your glass.
Speaker 1I will try good pictures of everything so that you can see what the hell we're talking about. We will be back with you next time. Until then, enjoy the next glass of wine Drink.
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