Margaret River Wine Talk: Frazer sparkles

The Margaret River wine region may not be known for its sparkling variety, but one local producer says that is beginning to change.

Wilyabrup winery Frazer Woods Wines has been producing sparkling wine using the traditional French methode Champenoise for 19 years.

Such is the rarity of the specialised facility needed for this method, owner John Frazer produces sparkling wines for his own labels, Frazer Woods and La Cache, and for about 25 other wineries.

His Frazer Woods Pinot Chardonnay Sparkling Non-Vintage was named the best sparkling wine in WA by Ray Jordan in the West Australian Wine Guide 2013.

“We do methode Champenoise, the full traditional method of making sparkling which is fermented in the bottle traditionally,” Mr Frazer said.

“It’s got to be fermented in the bottle six weeks to nine months basically.”

Mr Frazer said sparkling wine had to be specially grown and picked early when there was a low sugar content, to allow for the second fermentation process in the bottle.

He said for his own labels, the second fermentation process or en tirage lasted longer – for a minimum of three years.

“The idea of that is one, to ferment and two, to develop a lovely toasty, bready character. That’s a tone that should be in all good sparkling wine and a bit of fruit as well,” he said.

Mr Frazer said more and more Margaret River wineries were starting to add sparkling wines to their range now there were local facilities available.

He said there were some quality sparkling wines around which would not cost you hundreds of dollars and had their own character unique to the region.