Cuvée Noir Magnum

The hand-picked Dornfelder was crushed and then fermented on the skins in stainless steel for 4-5 days. The wine underwent malolactic fermentation and maturation in barrel. A specialist red wine yeast was used for the first ferment and then the 18-2007 Champagne yeast for the bottle fermentation. Aged on lees for four years.

Magnums give us something a little different and special, compared to smaller bottles. There is more wine in a Magnum bottle and therefore less space between wine and cork, reducing the amount of air to wine ratio found with smaller bottles – which is what causes ageing. This gives us a prolonged maturation, and the wine will often develop greater nuances and more complex flavours than wine aged in standard bottles. You may have noticed when Magnums are released they are always at least a year of more older than the same wine sold in a standard bottle.

There is also a benefit with the way we make our sparkling wines, the Traditional Method does the secondary ferment of the wine in the bottle, the very gradual breakdown of yeast cells that gives the wine it’s bubbles works better in a magnum because of the greater glass surface area, which allows more contact between the yeast cells on the inside of the bottle and the wine, thus creating more fizz!

The perfect pairing for rich game dishes, BBQ meats, salami and cheese. Also great with sweeter dishes such as bitter chocolate desserts, Christmas pudding and blueberries.

Grape varieties: Dornfelder

ABV: 12.5%