Ekin Wine Co Sparkling Pinot Noir 2023

Sparkling Pinot Noir from a single Langhorne Creek block of 27-year-old MV6 vines on red alluvial sandy loam, machine-picked in the cool of the night and pressed gently to catch the grape's natural salmon blush. Fermented dry, low and slow at 13 degrees, then held in tank around six months and bottled with a light 5.5 g/L dosage and minimal finings. Red apple, white strawberry, yellow nectarine and grapefruit rind on the nose; zippy, sherbet-like acidity carries Turkish delight, rhubarb and dehydrated orange. Vegan friendly.

The block sits just 10 metres above sea level, planted at 2,600 vines to the hectare with drip irrigation checked daily. Langhorne Creek is low country, and the soil is a deep red alluvial sandy loam. It is the one site outside the Adelaide Hills in the Ekin range.

Mark Vella and Brad Case each had thirty years in vineyards when a big vintage left growers with fruit nobody wanted. They found homes for it, then decided to make their own wine and started Ekin in 2021. Henry Borchardt makes it: viticulture and oenology at university, a vintage in California, seven years at Sidewood, then back to join them in 2023. Fruit goes straight from the vineyard to the press so nothing sits around.

Serve it cold with oysters, lobster thermidor or a salmon sashimi platter.