Hand selected pinot noir was whole-bunch pressed, settled, cool fermented and underwent malo-lactic fermentation; the wine was subsequently bottle fermented and left on lees in bottle to age.

Stephen and Prue Henschke, fifth-generation winemakers at the family cellars at Keyneton, selected Lenswood in 1981 as a vineyard site in the Adelaide Hills. At 550m, the Lenswood vineyards offer not only beautiful views over the traditional vine country but also higher rainfall and humidity at the right time of the year, cooler temperatures to retain high natural acidity, and still enough sunshine to fully ripen the grapes.

We are very proud to release our first sparkling wine to celebrate Henschke’s 140th anniversary. In 1997 Prue and Stephen decided to select fruit from certain sites and clones which were just colouring, at veraison, for sparkling production from their pinot noir vineyard at Lenswood, rather than using these components for a dry red table wine. They had originally thought about releasing a wine for the millennium, however as the year 2000 got closer they realised that the wine needed more time to develop complexity on its lees. They continued to make the sparkling base wine in most years when the fruit quality was ideal.

With nearly 10 years of vintages on lees it seemed an appropriate time to look at a complex blend. Multiple vintages from 1997 to 2005 were blended in an assemblage-style blend in April 2008, as a mature disgorged non-vintage blanc de noir.

Careful selection of only the best fruit has meant that this is a very limited production wine.

Vivid pale gold with green hues. The complex nose is sweet and creamy, exhibiting lemon, stone-fruit and potpourri with nutty, toasty, yeast autolysis aromas; exotic with crème caramel hints. A complex, full, rich and creamy palate with layers of spicy strawberry/raspberry flavours; excellent intensity and great acidity carries through to a zesty finish. Excellent bead.

Celebration wine, drink now.

Source: Henschke website