2013 Clover Hill Vintage Release Brut Methode Traditionnelle Tasmania 750 ml

The 2013 Clover Hill Brut Méthode Traditionnelle brings Champagne-like complexity from one of Australia’s benchmark producers. We’ve got this Wine Access exclusive today at a stunning bargain price: just $40 per bottle. 

Our friendship with one of Australia’s top somms (and a well-timed text) scored us an exclusive allocation of this Top 100 bubbly, which rarely makes the trip to the States—every last bottle is usually snapped up by fine dining restaurants in nearby Melbourne. But thanks to our friend’s connection to the US importer, we’ve got the only allocation in North America, earmarked for Wine Access members.

Boasting dual 95-point scores, this mouthwatering Champagne rival is creamy and complex after a staggering five years on the lees—it’s a “luxurious” Tasmanian bottle that stands as one of our most serendipitous sparkling discoveries ever. 

One taste, and you’ll be as enamored with Tasmanian bubbly as we were: Loaded with enticing aromas of green apple and Asian pear deepened by secondary notions of biscuit and toast, the Clover Hill is focused and vibrant on the palate. It’s got broad, balancing notes of toasted nuts, and a lingering, linear note of salinity that will keep your palate primed for another sip. 

It’s been years since we’ve seen Tim, a somm friend who bolted for Melbourne to run one of the top wine programs Down Under. We’d heard a rumor that, with his restaurant shuttered for a few months, he’d decided to jet back to the Bay Area to visit family and friends, so we shot him a text when we were passing through his family’s Sonoma neighborhood. 

Turns out our timing really was impeccable: He had a few friends over, and was just starting to open up his “suitcase stash”—a bunch of seldom-seen-in-the-States wines he’d brought back from Australia. When we walked through the gate into his backyard, he’d just started to pour the chilled Clover Hill, ten minutes out of the cooler.

After sharing the warmest socially distant greeting we could, Tim caught us up on Clover Hill. “Our chef calls this ‘Tassie Taittinger,’ he told us, as we picked up a glass alive with a fusillade of bubbles. “It’s what we put in our guests’ hands the second they walk through the door. Unless we’re pairing it with smoked Tasmanian sea trout or greenlip Abalone...” He paused for a rapturous, head-back impression of a drooling Homer Simpson. 

Clover Hill is one of Australia’s finest sparkling wine producers. Located on the island of Tasmania 150 miles south of the Victoria coast, the estate sits at 41.2 degrees latitude—about the same as the cool-climate Pinot Noir territory of Marlborough, New Zealand. That’s where the heavy maritime influence (the property overlooks Bass Strait), ancient volcanic soils, and sheltered amphitheater give the grapes a long, steady growing season to allow graceful ripening and superb natural acidity. 

Comprised of 66% Chardonnay, 32% Pinot Noir, and the rest Meunier, the 2013 was partially aged in small French oak foudres, adding toasted notes that are only deepened by five years on the lees. The result is a wine that boasts the kind of creamy complexity you can usually only expect from long-aged Champagne. 

No wonder this bottle earned 95 points from both the Decanter World Wine Awards and Aussie authority James Halliday. No wonder it found its way onto Halliday’s list of Top 100 wines of 2018. And no wonder it’s a go-to glass pour for Tim—not to mention the one bubbly he packed for the trip back to the States.

You can be sure we expressed our appreciation to Tim with a few bottles of our own. Once you taste this Tasmanian treat, you’ll want to thank him too.