NV Yarrabank Creme de Cuvee

Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front

This is Yarrabank’s “sweeter” sparkling option. It offers just a little more than mere sweetness. It tastes of cooked apple and toffee with flashes of strawberry and toast too. There’s plenty of colour to the wine; you’d call it ‘pale crimson’ but it’s easy to see copper and magenta colours too. It is sweet but it finishes fresh, almost crisp; it’s not syrupy or excessive. It offers reasonable depth of flavour too. It’s not for everyone but it’s pretty well done.

Huon Hooke, The Real Review

Deep orange colour, most unusual in a sparkling wine. It’s like a deeply-coloured rosé after considerable ageing. The bouquet confirms it as an aged wine, with earthy, smoky, toasty, nutty nougat and quince paste developed pinot nuances, while the palate is rich and full-bodied, semi-sweet and ample, and again showing a lot of developed flavour, the finish is surprisingly dry after the mid-palate sweetness - thanks in large part to tannins. It’s a curious style, seemingly aimed at sweeter palates, but the aged characters would appeal more to fizz drinkers experienced with higher quality. It is a quality wine.