Henskens Rankin Brut Rose 2013
A very compelling wine and certainly the best Australian sparkling I have had in a long time. I was first introduced to Henskens Rankin while in Tasmania in 2019. A year later, we have been able to secure some stock for the store (only 830 bottles of this wine were made). If I am honest, I generally do not get too carried away with matching wine to food. Of course I avoid clashes, but I am pretty easy going when it comes to what to drink with what. That being said (as is evident in the accompanying photo) when a few of us sat down recently with a bottle of this wine and a dozen Sydney Rock oysters, the wine went from a very enjoyable aperitif to a wild and perfect partner to the salinity of the oysters and the zest of the freshly squeezed lime. All components seemed to play off each other, and the delicate red fruits (cranberry and pomegranate particularly) seemed to meld so effortlessly with the salty bite of the oyster. If Tassie sparkling and Sydney Rock Oysters don’t scream ‘Aussie summer’, then I don’t know what does. – Ches Cook, FWC.
Composition: 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir (Single vineyard, NW Tasmania)
Technical notes: Traditional method, wild primary fermentation in barrel (aged barriques). Conventional tirage. No reserve wines.
Six years on yeast lees (disgorged June 2019), 7.5 g/L dosage, 13.4% alcohol v/v, TA 7.66 g/L, pH 3.15, no MLF. Released at Effervescence Festival in November 2019.
A very pale blush of a rosé with tiny bubbles and a fine beading on the rim. Toast, red currants, ripe red cherries, strawberries, rosehip, rose petals and raspberries. An incredibly creamy mousse on this clean and complex sparkling wine. Taut red fruits, raspberries, vanilla, red currants, rhubarb dish pastry, alpine strawberries all combine in a very classical traditional method sparkling. 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir sourced from the White Rock Vineyard in north-western Tasmania, wild fermented in old oak barrels with the delicate colour coming from Pinot Noir skin maceration. This wine has spent 6 years on its lees and is from a tiny run of only 830 bottles, I tasted number 264. Still very youthful, over time this will head to a more savoury, truffle and forest floor stage as it matures. One to watch. Drink: 2020 - 2028, 93 Points. - Curly Haslam-Coates, The Wine Front
