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Our Sparkling Story
OUR PURPOSE
The Croser Sparkling story is rooted in the region, in handcrafting, and in a determination to create something extraordinary.
CROSER SPARKLING
Croser Sparkling was created as it was believed that the right region in Australia could produce sparkling wine to rival Champagne. That region is the Piccadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills.
Founded by Brian Croser, the first vintage of Croser was released in 1985 as an extension of Petaluma Wines. The Croser Sparkling philosophy continues today starting in the vineyard where all the vines are hand pruned, the grapes handpicked, the fruit whole bunch pressed and the wines hand crafted in the traditional method.
It was crafted in the traditional method, as it was believed this to be the only method to make sparkling wines to rival Champagne as it created complexity of texture, flavour, bouquet and those tiny bubbles.
Our Vineyards
Piccadilly Valley
It wasn’t so long ago that the Adelaide Hills was almost untested for grape growing. However, the region’s similarities in climate to that of Champagne have proven it to be the ideal place to create an Australian sparkling wine to rival the world’s best.
Piccadilly is a remarkable valley to the east of Mount Lofty, the highest point of the Adelaide Hills. What attracted Croser to Piccadilly – the coolest and wettest in a series of valleys radiating away from Mount Lofty – was its suitability for growing elegant Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. A combination of adequate rainfall, a cool ripening season, diverse aspects and quite varied soil types – over some of the oldest rock formations on the earth’s surface – promised to deliver a subtle diversity of flavours from within the one valley.
In 1985, Petaluma made the first Croser Sparkling, an elegant wine expressing the Piccadilly Valley’s delicate fruit flavours. The vines have since matured, adding subtle flavour depth to the wines, but the style of Croser sparkling remains unchanged. It will always be an elegant wine driven by Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes grown in the Piccadilly Valley.
Traditional Method Sparkling
Our winemakers are committed to making Sparkling wine using the traditional method, which has been practised in Champagne production for hundreds of years. This detailed process involves fermenting, maturation, riddling and disgorging all in the same bottle that will eventually reach the drinker. This technique is vital to achieve the ultra-fine bubbles and complexity of Croser Sparkling wines.
Vineyard & Harvest
We hand-harvest our vineyards at just the right time to deliver the right balance of flavour, delicacy, and freshness to our sparkling wines. Upon arrival at the winery, the grapes are chilled and ready for pressing.
Cuvée
During the fermentation process, the grapes become a dry wine. The winemaker then takes the various base wines and blends them together into what the French call a “cuvée”, which is the final sparkling wine blend.
Tirage & Aging
Yeast and sugars are added to the cuvée to start the second fermentation and wines are bottled. The wines are then aged on lees (the yeast particles). At Croser we age our wines up to 12 years.
Disgorging
The sediment is removed from the bottle. The bottles are placed upside down in freezing liquid, causing yeast bits to freeze in the neck. A pressurized bottle is then opened, allowing the frozen lees to escape.
Ella Hoban
Ella Hoban is fast becoming someone to know in the Sparkling Winemaking game. She has worked vintages in Langhorne Creek, Napa Valley in the US and Montsant Valley in Spain. Concluding that some of the best Sparkling Wines came from Adelaide Hills, she returned home and has been building a reputation for creating delicate and complex sparklings using Traditional Method. Ella also participates in wine show judging, contributions to the Adelaide Hills Wine Show Committee and involvement in programs focussed on elevating women in the wine industry.