Idee Fixe Premier Brut

Blanc de blancs from Margaret River chardonnay, made méthode traditionnelle in Idée Fixe's purpose-built sparkling facility — one of only a handful in Australia where every step from grape to labelling happens on site. Pale yellow with a persistent fine bead, it opens on ocean sea spray, coastal rosemary, lemon rind and crisp apple with a nuance of patisserie, then runs mouth-coating citrus acidity into a quenching, salt-flaked finish.

The fruit grows at Karridale, at the far southern end of Margaret River. The vineyard sits on rare quartz-based soils, and the Southern Ocean sends cold wind, morning fog and persistent cloud across it. That filtered light and long ripening is what keeps the chardonnay lean and bright. The block has been in Vasse Felix hands for more than a decade and is run to organic standards.

The obsession goes back to the 1980s, when winemaker David Gregg made a Vasse Felix Brut. Decades later an undocumented chardonnay block turned up in the southern vineyard, and the family built the project around it. Paul Holmes à Court bought the old Watershed winery for it. Mick Langridge, at Vasse Felix since 2010, makes the wine in stainless steel with a little oak. The first release came out in 2020.

Serve it cold with oysters or salty fried snacks.