“Vintage champagnes are much scarcer with probably only four out of 10 years producing a sufficiently good harvest to make a vintage. For example, 2021 was a nightmare,” writes wine columnist RICHARD CALVER.

THE Orange region is home to many high-standard wineries, including Printhie, which Halliday rates with five stars. 

Just over a year ago I’d purchased four bottles of the 2012 vintage sparkling marketed under the owners’ surname Swift and featuring the bird of that name on the label. 

The Qantas Wine website still has this wine at $50 a bottle, the price I paid, which is great value especially as it is an award winner. 

It won the Winewise Champion Sparkling 2020 against the best in the country. After the Christmas/New Year period, I’m down to one bottle with no regrets about its consumption as a celebratory emblem. 

The first bottle was enjoyed by the editor of this journal and Rod Henshaw of 2CC on the last “CityNews Sunday Roast” program for 2022. 

It was a great tipple to share. Rod’s memorable comment: “This wine is an acquired taste, one I’ve acquired in the last 20 minutes”. 

On air, I pointed out the bready backbone of the wine, how the bead was small and transformed to mouth filling and how it finished cleanly with a hint of citrus and sweetness. 

I was asked how it compared with French champagne, and my response was that it did so very well, especially against the non-vintage champagne. 

That exchange was prescient because on Christmas Eve I took the second bottle to a friend’s family dinner. They had opened a bottle of non-vintage Veuve Clicquot by the time I arrived slightly late (I was not familiar with the maze of roads in Bonner). It proved a good comparator. The French non-vintage wasn’t bad, but it didn’t delight to the same extent with the fizz fading earlier and the finish not as clean. 

My friend’s brother asked me what the difference was between vintage and non-vintage French champagne, with my mate saying: “No, don’t give him a chance to talk down to us!”

My response: “I cannot fail to be didactic, but I will attempt to keep the condescension from my tone.

“The difference is the world: vintage champagne (and it can only be called that under strict appellation rules) is made with grapes from a single year’s harvest. 

“The particular year is shown on the bottle. Vintage champagnes are much scarcer with probably only four out of 10 years producing a sufficiently good harvest to make a vintage. 

“For example, 2021 was a nightmare. Some vignerons lost their entire harvest. But even though there was a labour shortage, with champagne grapes being required to be handpicked, 2022 may make it to being a vintage year.

“Non-vintage champagne includes grapes/reserve stock from a mix of years, I’ve heard up to 20 years, and the product is more a reflection of the winemaker’s steady hand and technique to mass produce a similar tasting sparkling as in prior years. But even those wines maintain a premium because of the reputation surrounding the champagne name.” 

My hosts were gracious and sipped the Australian wine with nods of appreciation and then the conversation changed to other matters less prosaic, about Russia and Ukraine.

The third bottle was a present to my daughter. I explained the outcome of the comparison at my friend’s house. In response she sent me an article entitled “Veuve Clicquot is not a good champagne”. In turn she suffered my only joke involving a swift of another breed:

A woman goes to the mechanic complaining about an unbearable noise in her car. The mechanic looks, scratches his head and says: “Have you tried turning off your Taylor Swift playlist?”