DAOSA Blanc de Blancs Late Disgorged 2017

The Bizot pedigree is evident in this remarkably youthful and fresh aged sparkling from the Adelaide Hills. The creator, multi-generational Champagne/sparkling maker, Xavier Bizot, has grown and assembled a brilliant, seemingly ageless wine. Chardonnay grown in Piccadilly underwent its first fermentation and ageing on full lees in oak for eight months. Its second fermentation and maturation in bottle on lees was for 90 months. Honeysuckle and jasmine aromas swirl and mix with peach, baked apple, spice and almond biscotti with a drizzle of honey. It’s invitingly fresh and complex at the same time. So, too, a palate led by a fine bead, finely textured and dry with a deeply woven complex citrus, stone fruit intensity and background honeyed spices, peach custard, almond spread and biscuit. Acidity holds true, raising the freshness factor and adding extra spark.

Jeni Port

Wine critic at Winepilot

Jeni Port is one of Australia’s top wine communicators. Based in Melbourne, Jeni created the first wine column in the (then) Sun News-Pictorial before moving over to The Age and becoming that paper’s longest-serving wine writer. Over the years she has written for most Australian wine magazines and these days calls WinePilot home. She is also a Tasting Panel member on the Halliday Wine Companion. She was named Wine Communicator of the Year and Legend of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival in 2014 and in 2018 Legend of the Vine. She is a founding board member of Australian Women In Wine and is the co-deputy chair of Australia’s Wine List of the Year Awards and China’s Wine List of the Year Awards.

Wine writer and critic