Big news! Xavier Bizot of Terre à Terre wines is a Finalist in The Wine Magazine’s Winemaker of the Year 2022.
This highly prestigious award is a big deal, with past winners including Sarah Crowe, (Yarra Yering), Peter Gago (Penfolds) and Tim Kirk (Clonakilla).
Having been a big fan of Xavier’s wines for years, this is my “I told you so moment.” I like the French aspect Xavier brings to Australian wine, understanding our sun-filled fruit and giving it a line, delicacy and structure more often associated with French wine. And I like his prices, his wines are great value for the quality.
I’ve told Xavier’s story many times, but here’s a quick recap. Xavier is married to Lucy Croser and his father is Christian Bizot. If these two names seem familiar, there’s good reason. Christian was Bollinger patriarch and chairman from the late 70s to the mid 90s, and his aunt was the famous Lily Bollinger. When Bollinger looked to expand their interests in the 80s, they invested in Petaluma, the iconic South Australian winery, started in 1976 by Brian Croser. Brian, a leading figure in the Australian wine industry, is Lucy’s father. Lucy and Xavier married in 2003 and I think you’d be hard pressed to find better winemaking credentials in a couple. In 2005 they moved back to Adelaide from Paris (where Xavier worked as a lawyer), to establish a small domaine in Wrattonbully, naming it Terre à Terre, meaning ‘down to earth.’ You may also know Xavier in connection with his sparkling wine Daosa, one of the country’s best and most awarded.
Xavier makes many wines, but I’m happy to offer you three that I think will be perfect on your table this Christmas.
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Daosa Blanc de Blanc 2015
As Andrew Graham of the Australian Wine Review recently said "Why drink industrial NV champagne when you have Adelaide Hills Sparkling like this?" This Daosa Blanc de Blanc 2015 is a super wine, one of, if not the best vintage Blanc de Blanc in Australia. It’s 100% chardonnay sourced from the Piccadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills and was aged on lees for 30 months. Disgorged August 2019, dosage 7g/l (ie dry).
So many good reviews for this wine. Here are just a few.
“Medium to light yellow colour, with a fresh bouquet which showcases coconut, nougat and cashew nut, indicating barrel use, plus lemon curd. It’s full-bodied and weighty, revealing great concentration of fruit flavour, richness and grip. Very dry finish as a result. Powerful, long finish. A very individual style: not a fine Champagne lookalike but something more generous and fruit-rich. An excellent wine.” 96 points, Huon Hooke (he’s a hard marker, so a great score from him).
“Bright straw-green; it’s very elegant, very long, and superbly balanced. Xavier Bizot says ‘this is by far the best vintage of our Blanc de Blancs.'” 97 points, James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2021.
Included in James Halliday’s Wine Companion 2021 ‘Best of the Best’ Sparking Wines.
“A cracking vintage wine from Xavier Bizot, showing aromas of coconut, nougat, cashew nut, lemon curd and hints of oak barrel. Full bodied and weighty. Displays concentration and richness, the finish long and powerful. A most impressive sparkling wine.” 96 points, Gourmet Traveller Wine, January 2020.
Top Rated Australian Sparkling Wine in Gourmet Traveller Wine.
Daosa Blanc de Blanc 2015 was awarded Platinum at the 2020 Decanter World Wine Awards. To put this in perspective, of the 16,500 wines submitted only 178 achieved a Platinum award. The Daosa Blanc de Blanc 2015 was awarded 97 points, making it both the highest scoring Australian sparkling wine, and the only one to achieve a Platinum Award, also placing it ahead of many big names in Champagne. Impressive.
I can offer it for $85 a bottle.
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Terre a Terre Crayeres Vineyard Cabernet Franc 2020
Previously known as Wrattonbully Red, this wine is a real favourite of mine. This just released vintage is a blend of 92% cab franc and 8% shiraz, both close-planted and handpicked from the Crayeres vineyard in Wrattonbully.
The fruit was transported to the Tiers winery in the Piccadilly Valley in the Adelaide Hills, where the cab franc and shiraz were fermented in open top fermenters, with 30% of the cab franc portion left as whole bunches (ie. not destemmed). I had a chat with Xavier about this and he told me that when the stalks are ripe (red in colour), which they were this year, judicious addition to the ferment can improve fragrance, stabilise the colour, lead to silkier tannins and generally enhance the structure of the wine. It makes the wine “better” as he explained. Xavier emphasised the importance of the stalks being red (ripe) and not green (unripe), which can detract from the wine, a distinction he laughed that some winemakers in Burgundy seem not to worry about so much. After ferment the wine was aged in French barriques (225L), around 30% of which were new, for 12 months. This is less time than the previous vintage, which Xavier reckons is appropriate as the vines mature. The wine was bottled without filtration in June 2020. It’s 13.8% alcohol and sealed with a screwcap.
I tasted the wine with Xavier a few weeks ago and in addition to the beautiful fruit and firm structure, what I loved most about the wine is its elegance, a result of the relatively cooler 2020 vintage in Wrattonbully.
“The Terre à Terre wines are never short of structure and this is another case in point. It’s quite perfectly formed, with graphite, chocolate, boysenberry and fresh blackcurrant flavours purring through the palate, aromatic herb notes then adding to the highlights. Fruit, oak, acid and tannin are all in harmony, and while tannin test the finish there’s still good flow there. I say this every year, it seems, but the value is quite exceptional here. This is a medium-bodied red, with fruit, with tannin, with insistence.” 94 points, Campbell Mattinson, The Wine Front.
“Wrattonbully Cabernet Franc done well. Very, very well. With a beautiful perfume, I’m hooked from the outset. Given the asking price, this is an excellent buy. Purple flowers, dried petals and a boysenberry swirl ensure my full attention is focused. Loaded with blackberries, a sheet of fine powdery tannins is sprayed through the mouth leaving a dusty chew to muse over. With a cheeky 8% Shiraz making a contribution, dried herbs take charge with Dutch chocolate before the blackberries swing back around to cut in on close. That puckering tannin is moreish deluxe so I’m happy to go back again and again. Superfine spices add some classy window dressing late but they are good enough to not steal the limelight. A super wine that will also reward the patient. Drink to ten years+” 94 points, Steve Leszczynski, Qwine Reviews.
I can’t stress enough how very few, if any, reds at this price point see such a quality oak regime. I also love that this wine is a blend (cab franc and shiraz) that you’ll only see in Australia, a combination that produces great aromatics, length and power, yet remains elegant. This wine is an absolute bargain.
I can offer it for $26 a bottle.
Terre a Terre Botrytis 2021
And because it’s Christmas it’s the perfect time to tell you about this sensational new sweet wine from Xavier.
As soon as some people see botrytis on a label they run for the hills, anticipating an over the top, sweet and syrupy wine. Let me quash this straight away. This wine only has about 10% botrytised fruit and is light, super fresh, and delicious.
The wine has not been been reviewed by critics yet, but here’s a good description from Xavier.
"The 2021 Terre à Terre Crayères Vineyard Botrytis is a first release. The majority of our Crayères Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc was harvested in late February 2021, but as conditions were perfect to make a Botrytis wine, we left some fruit on the eastern part of the vineyard. We harvested this fruit three months later on 25th of May 2021, with 60% clean late harvested fruit, 30% shrivelled fruit, and 10% botrytis.”
“We fermented and aged the wine in tank and tried to retain the very intense pure flavours from the late harvested and botrytised fruit. The wine is very fragrant, with very persistent aromas of white truffles, unburdened by the absence of any orange peel or marmalade characters, which are generally found in botrytis wines. The palate shows exemplary ripe pear and apricot fruit characters of late harvested sauvignon blanc. The length is exemplary, as the modest sugar levels (120g/L), combined with the high acidity, make the wine remarkably light and not cloying. A great aperitif wine or dessert wine which will make you ask for more than a glass!”
Several high-profile restaurants have jumped onto this, including Firedoor in Surry Hills, which was last week awarded Restaurant to the Year at the SMH Good Food Awards. It was also one of only four restaurants awarded 3 hats. One of the other 3 hats recipients was Quay, which also decided to put the wine on its list. Not much more to say, other than you’re going to love it.
I can offer it for $45 a bottle (750ml).
More of Xavier’s wines here:
Terre a Terre Crayeres Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2019
Daosa Natural Reserve NV (5th release)
Also, we've added lots of new wines to our website, ready for Christmas shopping.
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IMPORTANT FREIGHT INFORMATION
Metro Sydney - we have our own van and driver, so for metro Sydney* we’ll be able to sort out pre-Christmas delivery for orders placed up until the 23rd December.
Outside of Sydney - we rely on couriers. They’ve been experiencing significant delays due to massive increases in volumes so there will be no guarantee of pre-Christmas delivery for orders placed after the 1st December.
*There’s always some ambiguity and flexibility as to what may be regarded as metro Sydney. We’re in Bondi Junction, so if you’re ‘in Sydney’ but miles away, best to email me at davidparker@bottleandglass.com.au so we can clarify the situation.
