Dan the Wine Man
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Dan the Wine Man

Let's explore deeper into the world of wine and winemaking.

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Dan Ma

Dan Ma

A British/Australian who loves wine and wandering, delving deeper into how wine is made and the people who enjoy it. MSc in Oenology and Viticulture and WSET 3 certified, focusing in consumer insight, sensory and sparkling wine production.

English Sparkling Wine Blend Components
FeaturedLearning

Exciting new English Sparkling Wine project

by Dan Ma 12/02/2021

Hello my dear friends, it’s been a while. 2020 was a tough year for us all, and definitely testing for me. But have I given up on wine? Definitely not – far from it!

One silver lining of 2020 was that it turned out to be a great vintage, with a relatively mild spring and a moderate summer which allowed the grapes to ripen slowly and fully, developing beautiful floral and fruit aromas while keeping enough acidity to create a crisp sparkling.

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12/02/2021 0 comment
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Purple Hands Wines Planta Circa Grenache 2018
Wine Reviews

Purple Hands 2018 Planta Circa Ancestor Vine Grenache

by Dan Ma 01/06/2020

I’ll be honest, a Barossa old vine Grenache was never going to be a tough sell for me. So it when it came to this one made with 130 year-old vines by a Barossa legend, it was a no-brainer.

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01/06/2020 0 comment
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Ravens Croft Wines Pinotage 2019
Granite BeltWine Reviews

Ravens Croft Pinotage 2019

by Dan Ma 23/05/2020

Another special wine smuggled all the way back to the UK from the Granite Belt is the Ravens Croft 2019 Pinotage. With only 8 out of about 6,000 vineyards growing Pinotage in Australia, this has to be one of the rarer Strangebirds (alternative varieties) seen in the Granite Belt.

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23/05/2020 0 comment
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Schloss Vaux Assmannhäuser Pinot Noir Red Sekt bottle
Wine Reviews

Vaux Sparkling (red!) Pinot Noir

by Dan Ma 17/03/2020

We may be familiar with white or rosé sparkling Pinot Noir, but how often do you see a red sparkling Pinot Noir? This Traditional method red Sekt from Scloss Vaux is made from Pinot Noir in the well respected (albeit somewhat unfortunately named) VDP village in the Rheingau and aged on lees for 3.5 years.

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17/03/2020 0 comment
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Learning

Disgorging: How Traditional Method sparkling wine is bottled

by Dan Ma 01/02/2020

We all know how a cork comes out of your favourite bottle of bubbles, but did you know how it got in there? Me neither until recently. There are several ways that sparkling wine is bottled (another article soon!), but one of the most interesting is the Traditional Method, used to make Champagne and of course English Sparkling.

Here, the wine goes through a second fermentation after the initial wine is made to produce the creamy bubbles that we enjoy. Once this is done (which could take months or several years!), the dead yeast is expelled and the bottle topped with a corked, thorugh a process known as “Disgorging” or dégorgement. Let’s look at how this is done.

Traditional method sparkling wine corks

Corks look completely different before they are bottled. They take take their recognisable shape by being tightly squeezed and pressed into the bottle, to hold the immense pressure behind it in the bottle.

Sparkling wine bottles in a gyropalatte

Traditional method (Champagne) bottles arrive in large palettes upside down after their second fermentation.

Being upside down allows the yeast lees to settle at the neck of the bottle, allowing it to be removed. Note the crown cap!

The cap is popped out, and a little wine along with the yeast is expelled (explosively!). Many choose to freeze the neck of the bottle to slow this process down, but we like to do things the hard way!

The “dosage” (or liqueur d’expédition) containing sugar, wine and sulphites (preservative) is added. This also gives the final sweetness of the wine.

Bottles are then topped up with the same wine to make it back to 750ml. Note that on standard Champagne bottles this is 72mm from the top of the bottle.

A cork is placed in a press which squeezes it to the width of the neck of the bottle, so it can be inserted.

This is the bottle after the press has squeezed the cork into it. As tight as it looks, it won’t stay for very long due to to the immense pressure in the bottle. It needs to be held in place!

The wire cage (or muselet) is pressed on and twisted tight around the neck…

…like so. And we’re done!

The bottle is then foiled and labelled at a later stage before going out the door.

Of course this rather laborious process is largely automated nowadays with high tech doodads and whizbangs but the principles and actions are still the same. However, this is still done by hand by a number of smaller producers!

01/02/2020 0 comment
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Boireann Shiraz Viognier 2016
Granite BeltWine CountryWine Reviews

Boireann Winery and *THAT* 2016 Shiraz Viognier

by Dan Ma 29/12/2019

An absolute honour to hang out all day with Brad Rowe from Boireann Winery. You see, Brad’s got some pretty big shoes to fill, as he’s taken over as winemaker from the original owner, Peter Stark since his retirement in 2017.

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29/12/2019 0 comment
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Tobin Wines 2018 Elliot Reserve Merlot
Granite BeltWine CountryWine Reviews

Tobin 2018 Elliot Reserve Merlot

by Dan Ma 29/12/2019

Today we’re back in the Granite Belt with Tobin Wines and their new 2018 Elliot Reserve Merlot. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing this one progress from barrel to bottle over the last 18 months, and a beautiful end result.

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29/12/2019 0 comment
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Canals of Strasbourg in the Alsace
LearningWine Country

Vin d’Alsace

by Dan Ma 19/12/2019

One of France’s newest wine regions, the Alsace was granted AOC status only in 1962, due to its rich in geopolitical history. The region borders on Germany along the Rhine River, and changed hands between Germany and France several times over the past few centuries.

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19/12/2019 0 comment
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Banca Ridge 2019 Gruner Veltliner at the Queensland College of Wine Tourism
Granite BeltWine CountryWine Reviews

Banca Ridge Grüner Veltliner 2019

by Dan Ma 19/12/2019

Really excited about getting into this Grüner Veltliner, one of the Granite Belt’s newest alternative varieties, or “Strangebirds” as they call them here. Once thought to be Riesling’s poorer sibling, Grüner tops many restaurant lists being a very food friendly wine. So Queensland restaurants now have no excuse not to stock local. It’s also got an umlaut in its name, so it’s also instantly cool.

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19/12/2019 0 comment
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Adrian Tobin, Ian and Phil from Tobin Wines
Granite BeltWine CountryWine Reviews

The Granite Belt: Tobin Wines

by Dan Ma 18/12/2019

Adrian Tobin is one of the many I see who epitomise Granite Belt wine country. Easy going, loves a friendly chin-wag and nuts about what he does. Passion over profits and hectolitres, he crafts with meticulous detail, eagle-eyed and in tune with his vines, the terroir, the weather…all for only couple of precious barrels.

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18/12/2019 0 comment
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About Me

About Me

Dan Ma

A British/Australian who loves wine and wandering, delving deeper into how wine is made and the people who enjoy it.

 

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Recent Posts

  • Exciting new English Sparkling Wine project

    12/02/2021
  • Purple Hands 2018 Planta Circa Ancestor Vine Grenache

    01/06/2020
  • Ravens Croft Pinotage 2019

    23/05/2020
  • Vaux Sparkling (red!) Pinot Noir

    17/03/2020
  • Disgorging: How Traditional Method sparkling wine is bottled

    01/02/2020

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