*Valid on every dozen wines purchased in a single transaction | Offer valid until 11:59pm Monday 1st December 2025 | Cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer
5g, refers here to grams per litre, aka the dosage is 5 grams per litre of sugar, which is both quite low and reflective of the quality of fruit required to allow this, while also producing a Champagne which does not taste sour or hard. 50% of this comes from reserve wine and is aged on lees in bottles for up to 4 years prior to disgorgement. The blend is 85% Meunier and 15% Pinot Noir. We found yellow stone fruits, dried white flowers, and even a suggestion of matcha tea here. This is fresh, rich and complex in a way that makes you feel deeply curious as to how they made such a superbly engaging Champagne that both evokes the region so strongly, and yet stands apart from other Champagnes of the region so clearly.
Neret Vely don’t have the ‘been making Champagne from a single, old vine Grand Cru vineyard for the last 4,000 years’ thing going on, but they do make incredible Champagne. So good, that a Master of Wine candidate we were chatting with at Wine Paris said we had to go and taste them.
In the 1980s the Neret family was one accountant and one farmer with zero winemaking experience. A great love for Champagne and the inheritance of a small section of a tiny vineyard changed all that very rapidly. Within 10 years they had 13 acres of vines and take a very respectful approach to their management. The vineyard is biodynamic and ploughing is done by horse rather than tractor. They are very talented winemakers but, regardless, employ a series of specialist oenologists to constantly help them revisit and rework blends until they feel they have produced truly exceptional Champagnes.
If you are a fan of Rhone grapes/wines then I have just the one for you. Coming in at AUS $30, $27 if you are smart enough to head to winedirect.com.au! The Schwarz GSM is UBER drinkable. 2017 wasn't the best vintage in Barossa but what the guys have done at the Schwarz company is a wine that you would think came from one of the better vintages! You get notes of soft red fruit, violet, mulberries, and licorice too alongside juicy tannins, perfectly balanced acidity, and a touch of oak. With ratings of 94 points from both Huon Hooke & Nick Butler, it's defo a great drop.
This week I am sipping on a Semillon from First Creek in the Hunter Valley. Semillon is a thing of beauty really. Drunk young it's fresh with juicy acidity, apple, pear, and loads of bright citrus notes. Kept in the cellar and it will reward you in 5, 10, and 20 years. As it develops it gets (I think) a little grassy, the acidity is less prominent and notes of honey start to form. Pick this up from winedirect.com.au at a bargain of $22 a bottle and the only thing you will complain about is having not bought 6-12 bottles!
From the Chef's notes: "I named this recipe Natalie after my daughter who at that time was wearing a very colourful dress with black and white and yellow and red and green. She looked like a ray of light. Too bad no food is blue to match her eyes."
Ingredients
For the Marrons:
6 baby marrons (80grams each)
2 liters of water
a hand full of fennel leaves
2 slices of lemon
34 grams of salt
1kg of ice
For the Tomatoes;
4 medium tomatoes
6 basil leaves
2 sprigs of parsley
½ clove of garlic
3 tablespoons of fresh olive oil
Salt & pepper
For the Sauce:
100ml of a light fish stock
1/10th gram of saffron
20ml of cream
10g of fresh butter
For the Garnish:
4 firm white mushrooms,
40g of fresh black Manjimup truffles
60g of whipped cream
1 small shallot
4 crisp sugar peas
Salt and pepper
Method
For the Marrons:
Boil the water with the salt, the fennel and the lemon for 5mn with a lid on to infuse, add the Marrons, and cook for 5mn. Scoop them out of the water and plunge them in a bowl of ice cold water.
We packed Matt off to Prowein and Champagne again this year to hunt down some quality reds from Europe and perhaps another Champagne producer or 2 to add to the 3 awesome producers we already import... Click here to see the Champagne houses we currently import and you can check out some articles on our previous expeditions via this search query.
Prowein was especially nuts this year, with 6,500 exhibitors from over 60 countries showing their wares (that’s around 4,000 more producers than there are in Australia) and about 60,000 trade visitors tasting and buying.
About to elbow through the scrum – over 6000 wineries on show and 60000 buyers.
What, me Jetlagged? About to catch up with Bernard Remy.
Meeting Schola Sarmenti at Prowein – amazing wines and a lovely Grappa.
The brief to Matt was simple: elbow your way through the scrum and find us the good stuff... reds good enough for Aussies to drink and that are cracking value for money. On previous trips Matt had just been hunting for Champagne
About to elbow through the scrum – over 6000 wineries on show and 60000 buyers.
What, me Jetlagged? About to catch up with Bernard Remy.
Meeting Schola Sarmenti at Prowein – amazing wines and a lovely Grappa.
