Peter Lehmann Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz 2005 - Barossa Valley, Australia
Bin No. PLBQSPK05
Price: £15.00
Sparkling Shiraz is a unique Australian wine style first developed in South Australia in the late 1800's. In the decades spanning 1930 - 1950 the Seppelt winery at Great Western in Victoria became the home of great Australian sparkling Shiraz, or sparkling Burgundy as it was commonly known at that time.
Peter Lehmann's chief winemaker Andrew Wigan grew up in a town close to that winery and those sparkling Shiraz held a strong attraction for him. Since the mid 1970's, when he arrived in the Barossa to work with Peter Lehmann, he has wanted to make a great sparkling wine from Barossa Shiraz.
A few cases were made each vintage in the 1980's but it wasn't until the first release in 1999 of the 1994 vintage (5 years cellaring in the bottle on triage) things started to get really serious.
The wine was named 'The Black Queen' in honour of the most hauntingly famous Black Queen of all, The Queen of Sheba, who describes herself in the book of Solomon "I am black, (and) comely". There can be no better description of this wine.
The 2005 Black Queen Sparkling Shiraz is made using grapes from forty-year-old Shiraz vines. At the winery the grapes were fermented on skins for 7 to 10 days, pressed, clarified and then matured for 12 months in older French oak hogsheads. The base wine was then bottle-fermented and aged on its yeast lees for six years.
The colour is deep cherry red and the nose is full of beautiful soft chocolate and dark plums. Having spent 6 years on its lees it has a persistent fine bead and is superbly developed showing richness, softness and a delicious yeast complexity.
Whitehaven wines was formed in 1993 by Greg and Sue White, and winemaker, Simon Waghorn. Their aim was to establish a winery in Marlborough producing premium quality varietal wines. To achieve this they have brought together a leading New Zealand winemaker, a dedicated group of growers, and a small modern winery facility where top quality fruit can receive the 'hands-on' treatment that i
