Bubbling to the top

And the Hambledon Meonhill Grande Reserve Cuvée, a blend of 50 per cent Chardonnay and 50 per cent Pinot Noir, is an excellent example of British quality sparkling wine, overseen by Hervé Jestin, a well-known winemaker from the Champagne region in France who even produces his own label of champers in Épernay, the southern Champagne town that is home to a multitude of quality producers.

Virgin Atlantic had a longtime affiliation with Lanson (also an Épernay house), unique among its Champagne house colleagues in avoiding malolactic fermentation in its wines. ‘Malo’, as wine aficionados call it, is part of what makes a Champagne so almondy, biscuity, toasty and complex at sea level. Essentially, it’s what means a Champagne tastes like a Champagne. Virgin Atlantic’s point was that malo was accentuated at altitude, so it traditionally used the Lanson Black Label reasonable midrange bottle. Virgin Australia, too, used to serve the Lanson (but the more upmarket Gold Label), although it has now moved to other labels, including recently a 2006 Ayala. Outside its Dreamliner fleet, Virgin Atlantic too has moved to a toastier Gosset bottle.

Qantas has previously served the Grant Burge Pinot Noir Chardonnay sparkling in its business lounges, and it’s a reasonable drop. (You’ll also find it in the American Express cardholder lounge in Sydney’s international terminal. ) Yet the Red Roo has always gone big with its French Champagne spend, even to the extent that there is a shipping crate in the “our very best customers” wall at maison Taittinger in Reims marked ‘QANTAS AIRLINES’ (yes, “airlines”, really).

Air New Zealand already offers the homegrown Quartz Reef Méthode Traditionelle, a regular medallist in the airline’s eponymous wine awards, alongside its Champagne offerings in Business Premier. Indeed, it offers solely the Quartz Reef on the ground, with the French fizz only popping its Air New Zealand already offers the homegrown Quartz Reef Méthode Traditionelle. cork after takeoff (and after duty would need to be paid on it).

So it’s interesting to note that none of the many Australian sparkling reds – including Grant Burge’s sparkling Shiraz Cabernet – has made it into lounges or onto aircraft. Even adding a couple of bottles of this fascinating and particularly Australian soft red sparkling style onto each flight would be a real boost to Australian wine.

Among the Champagne connoisseurs of Europe, English sparkling wine has seen remarkable growth thanks to the fact that the areas where it is grown remind Champagne growers of what their region used to be like before the uncertainty of climate change and the undeniable rises in heat as a result of global warming. The calcaire limestones of Champagne are stunningly similar to those of the South Downs in England. Australia also offers a number of limestone-dominant winegrowing areas, including the eponymous Limestone Coast region of south-eastern South Australia, which encompasses the Coonawarra, Mount Benson, Mount Gambier, Robe, Padthaway and Wrattonbully Australian Geographical Indication wine regions.

Champagnes in the future are likely to be grown in climates and on terroirs similar to the ones that Australian sparkling wines are grown on today. There’s no question that a Pinot Noir producer on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula or in several Tasmanian winegrowing areas can produce an excellent Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grape.

The crucial question, however, is whether they can translate that grapegrowing prowess – so well demonstrated in the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay still wines from those terroirs – to the complexity and blending required for a true, classic, interesting méthode champenoise.

Air New Zealand already offers the homegrown Quartz Reef Méthode Traditionelle.

And for airlines, there’s a second question: can they get it at the right price and in the right quantities? Australia certainly has the winemakers – to name a few, Arras, Chromy, Clover Hill, Deviation Road, Grant Burge, Hanging Rock, Jansz – who create deliciously complex wines that aficionados would enjoy sampling.

If Virgin Atlantic can feature an English sparkling in the world’s most discriminating Champagne market, what’s stopping Qantas and Virgin Australia from showcasing Australian sparkling wine?