Méthode Traditionnelle

Abel Methode Cider is made by us in small quantities, crafted from 100% apples and pears. We hand harvest tree-ripened fruit, crush it, then ferment until dry. This is quite different from your usual cider as we ferment the skins, stalks, pips and all, to maximize fruit aromatics and flavour. Abel cider is unfined and unfiltered. This basically means we allow our cider to naturally clarify via gravity to retain character. It's fermented in the bottle, like champagne. This natural carbonation gives a finer bubble which retains the aromas and flavours. Bottle fermentation adds complexity and texture, as well as giving cloudiness from the natural yeast sediment that remains.

Our cider is dry as this is the way we like to drink it - refreshing and full of flavour! ENJOY You have a couple of options when it comes to enjoying a bottle of Abel Methode Cider: EITHER...Place bottle upright in the fridge overnight, the colder the better. This will allow the natural sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle. When you're ready to drink it, pour the clear cider (everything but the settled sediment) into a champagne flute or wine glass of your choice. OR...If you like cloudy cider, invert the bottle a couple of times then pour away!

One of our absolute faves here at Regional Wines. Central Otago based, Austrian born and bred winemaker Rudi Bauer is the mastermind behind the stunning wines at Quartz Reef winery, which he founded and then furthered his own career by studying biodynamics and organics. All of his Quartz Reef wines are certified by both BioGro and Demeter for biodynamic production.

The grapes for this Blanc de Blanc were hand picked and had their second fermentation in bottle followed by 60 months aging on lees. It was riddled and disgorged by hand and has refreshing citrus notes and irresistible bakery aromas which highlight the great suitability of world's southernmost wine region for sparkling wine production.

This is a great example of world class m?thode traditionnelle.

If you like Chardonnay, you'll love this sparkling Hawke's Bay blancs de blancs made from  Alpha Domus winery. 

All of the grapes in this wine were hand picked, whole bunch pressed and fermented to bone dry (one gram of residual sugar). It was made from 26 year old Clone 6 Chardonnay vines grown at Bridge Pa in Hawke’s Bay and disgorged at Soljans in West Auckland, which has all the gear for making high end sparkling wine. 

This beautiful creamy, full bodied bubbly over delivers big time, showing yet again just how good New Zealand's best sparkling wines can be. 

Amisfield Brut is one of Central Otago's great Pinot Noirs, only in this case the grapes were gently crushed and the skins removed immediately in order to make a white wine with bubbles, modelled on champagne. 

All of the grapes were hand picked and the wine went through its second fermentation in bottle where it spent 18 months on yeast lees, retaining freshness, gaining full bodied, yeasty, toasty aromas. It's dry with five grams of residual sugar per litre and a long, refreshing finish thanks to crisp acidity which adds drive and length to every tasty sip. 

This wine represents outstanding value for money and shines another light on Pinot Noir from the deep south.

70% Viognier and 30% Sauvignon Blanc made with the ancestral method of bottle fermentation and no disgorgement (akin to Petillant Naturel).

A very sophisticated yet quaffable sparkler with real complexity. 

One of New Zealand’s best bubbles and one of its most consistent, complex handmade wines; it's typically a 70/30 blend of toasty flavours from Pinot Noir with crisp citrus creamy ones from Chardonnay. It comes from one of the country's oldest producers of traditional method sparkling wine - Rudi Bauer in Central Otago, who pioneered Quartz Reef Brut NV in the early days of Otago as a wine region.

Quartz Reef Brut NV began life when winemaker Rudi Bauer teamed up with a visiting French winemaker Clothilde Chauvet (daughter of champagne maker Marc Chauvet). Together they pioneered this high quality, traditional method sparkling wine, using mostly Pinot Noir (now 72% of the blend) with the balance being Chardonnay. The wine is typically aged for two years on lees in bottle following its second fermentation - longer than most champagnes. No wonder it massively over delivers on both taste and price. This is a stunning sparkling wine. Ignore at your peril.

Late Whitehaven co-founder Greg white was immensely proud of his three daughters, a legacy that Sue White has continued at the helm of Whitehaven Wines. And this new dry pink sparkling wine is made in honour of the daughters, as its name suggests. As is fitting of them, it is a beautiful expression of a sparkling wine made using the same winemaking methods as champagne - the second ferment is in the bottle; the blend is Chardonnay and Pinot Noir and the wine is incredibly elegant, crisp and bone dry in taste. Flavours of fresh summer berries lead into a gentle creaminess in a sparkling wine with a long, precise, cleansing finish.

Drink it with lightly grilled tuna or smoked salmon.

As if Lake Wanaka isn't enough of an allure to drink this beautiful bubbly, made from grapes grown in the vicinity, the flavours of this crisp lemony sparkling wine are outstanding. 

Winemakers Sarah-Kate and Dan Dineen describe the flavours in this sparkling wine as "Lemon blossom, brioche and biscuit with hints of almond nuttiness."
They make the base wine from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, blending the current season wine with a portion of the previous vintage?s bubbly base, matured for an extra 12 months in oak. They add 15% of reserve wine from back vintages, dating back to 2004 to produce complex assemblage, pure and persistent with hints of nuttiness and biscuit. After tirage and secondary fermentation in bottle, the wine is aged on yeast lees for a further 12 to 18 months prior to riddling and disgorging.

A beautiful Blanc de Noir made entirely from lightly pressed Pinot Noir grapes and made by Clos Henri in Marlborough. The light pressing provides no colour to the wine but retains all the savoury, earthy, toasty flavours you'd hope for and expect from this great red grape variety. 

All grapes are hand picked grapes and the wine is aged on fine lees for 10 months, partially in stainless steel and partially in old oak. The wine was stored in the winery's cellar to allow a slow bottle fermentation and secondary aging on yeast lees for a minimum of 18 months. A few hundred bottles are disgorged at a time to release onto the market, leaving the remainder aging on its lees (sur lattes). 

Clos Henri began 22 years ago in Marlborough when the French Bourgeois family expanded their winemaking from the heart of Sancerre in the tiny village of Chavignol to Blenheim, in 2001. Now that their vines are 22 years of age , the family feels that they are only now starting to reflect and express the taste of the land. This family retains their land and winemaking in Chavignol where they have made wine for 11 generations.

Abel Methode Cider is made by us in small quantities, crafted from 100% apples and pears. We hand harvest tree-ripened fruit, crush it, then ferment until dry. This is quite different from your usual cider as we ferment the skins, stalks, pips and all, to maximize fruit aromatics and flavour. Abel cider is unfined and unfiltered. This basically means we allow our cider to naturally clarify via gravity to retain character. It's fermented in the bottle, like champagne. This natural carbonation gives a finer bubble which retains the aromas and flavours. Bottle fermentation adds complexity and texture, as well as giving cloudiness from the natural yeast sediment that remains.

Our cider is dry as this is the way we like to drink it - refreshing and full of flavour! ENJOY You have a couple of options when it comes to enjoying a bottle of Abel Methode Cider: EITHER...Place bottle upright in the fridge overnight, the colder the better. This will allow the natural sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle. When you're ready to drink it, pour the clear cider (everything but the settled sediment) into a champagne flute or wine glass of your choice. OR...If you like cloudy cider, invert the bottle a couple of times then pour away!

Abel Methode Cider is made by us in small quantities, crafted from 100% apples and pears. We hand harvest tree-ripened fruit, crush it, then ferment until dry. This is quite different from your usual cider as we ferment the skins, stalks, pips and all, to maximize fruit aromatics and flavour. Abel cider is unfined and unfiltered. This basically means we allow our cider to naturally clarify via gravity to retain character. It's fermented in the bottle, like champagne. This natural carbonation gives a finer bubble which retains the aromas and flavours. Bottle fermentation adds complexity and texture, as well as giving cloudiness from the natural yeast sediment that remains.

Our cider is dry as this is the way we like to drink it - refreshing and full of flavour! ENJOY You have a couple of options when it comes to enjoying a bottle of Abel Methode Cider: EITHER...Place bottle upright in the fridge overnight, the colder the better. This will allow the natural sediment to settle to the bottom of the bottle. When you're ready to drink it, pour the clear cider (everything but the settled sediment) into a champagne flute or wine glass of your choice. OR...If you like cloudy cider, invert the bottle a couple of times then pour away!

Tohu Rewa Rose was made to celebrate 20 years of winemaking for the Maori owned Tohu Wines. Its pretty pink colour comes from light skin contact with the 100% Pinot Noir grapes used to make this wine, which was aged on lees for two years, giving it richly flavoursome fresh bakery aromas. 

Tohu Wines is a member of Methode Marlborough, a group of like minded sparkling wine producers whose rules stipulate that 100% of the grapes used in their wines must come from Marlborough and that their wines must spent at least 18 months on tirage (lees aging in bottle after the second fermentation). 

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes are gently pressed into production to make this dry, medium bodied bubbly from Marlborough, which was fermented with wild yeasts and aged for 18 months in bottle on lees; the decomposing yeast cells following fermentation in the bottle. It contains 8.8 grams of residual sugar per litre and alcohol of 12.5% ABV, giving it a medium body and lovely balanced flavours. It’s made by Allan Scott and his winemaking team.

Member of Methode Marlborough.

Rich, tasty and refined South Island bubbly, made as a tribute to Dawn Ibbotson, the matriarch of Saint Clair, who lived to be 104 and still resided in her own home. This sparkling wine was first made for her 100th birthday and it is a multi vintage blend made 100% from Marlborough grapes and using 63% Chardonnay with 37% Pinot Noir. The finished wine spent 30 months lees aging on tirage in bottle pre disgorgement.