{"product_id":"grace-cuvee-misawa-blanc-de-blancs-extra-brut-dry-2016","title":"Grace Cuvee Misawa Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut (Zero Dosage) 2016","description":"\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThis wine grew out of a playful desire to make sparkling wine — a departure, in the winemaker's own words, from the \"stiff sense of duty\" that comes with facing Koshu. Discovering the excitement of a second fermentation happening in bottle for the first time was, they've said, a reminder that winemaking can still be genuinely fun, even within the confined, disciplined rhythm of a life spent between vineyard and cellar.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eMade from Chardonnay hand-picked off the north-facing slopes of the Misawa Vineyard, the grapes are gently pressed and fermented in used French oak barrels, before undergoing traditional-method second fermentation in bottle. The wine then matures on lees for a long five years — remuage on pupitres, dégorgement and dosage addition all carried out entirely by hand. Yields are tiny: under 800 bottles produced in total from this vintage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003e2016 was a genuinely difficult year in the vineyard. Budbreak came earlier than any year on record, thanks to a mild winter, and May brought unusually warm, sunny conditions that pushed shoot growth and flowering ahead of schedule. The rainy season turned out better than feared, but from mid-to-late August, cloud cover from a typhoon rolled in, followed by an autumn rain front — and the month of continuous rain that followed brought the lowest daylight hours the vineyard had seen in years. It meant a hard slog through the back half of the season, including manually removing diseased fruit to protect what fruit remained. The conditions were severe enough that the red Cuvée Misawa couldn't be made that year at all — but the small amount of Chardonnay that did come through, just three barrels' worth, became what the winery has called their \"treasure\" from that vintage.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eChardonnay grapes are hand-picked from vines on the north-facing slopes of the Misawa Vineyard, gently pressed, and fermented in used French oak barrels before undergoing traditional-method second fermentation in bottle. The wine matures on lees for five years, with remuage on pupitres, dégorgement and dosage addition all done entirely by hand — yielding under 800 bottles from the vintage. Given that tiny production, the resulting intensity and concentration is dazzling.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp dir=\"ltr\"\u003eThe result is a wine of gentle bubbles and clean, precise acidity — Zero Dosage, so nothing is added to soften or sweeten it, letting the fruit and five years of lees ageing speak entirely for themselves.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Artisan Wines","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":44966814253125,"sku":"GRA16CMBDB","price":285.0,"currency_code":"AUD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0727\/8644\/4357\/files\/bcb6c49a-newimage.png?v=1777951270","url":"https:\/\/artisanwine.com.au\/products\/grace-cuvee-misawa-blanc-de-blancs-extra-brut-dry-2016","provider":"Artisan Wines","version":"1.0","type":"link"}