History
In the 1960s, Moët & Chandon began exploring the potential for producing world class sparkling wines outside France. Having established successful Chandon Estates in Argentina, Brazil and California, they saw the opportunity to produce a premium quality sparkling wine in Australia.
During the mid-eighties, a group of Australian wine experts were engaged to find an ideal site for growing traditional cool climate champagne grape varieties. Nestling in the Yarra Valley, they found an old dairy farm named ‘Green Point’ with the perfect combination of cool climate and great soil. Since 1986, this has been the site of Domaine Chandon.
In addition to the Yarra Valley site, Domaine Chandon established a vineyard about 150km north in the Strathbogie Ranges. The Chandon winemaking team also works with over 30 grape growers from the best cool climate regions from Victoria, Tasmania and beyond. The geographical diversity of the grape sourcing helps produce complexity and structure, trademark characteristics that have seen Chandon become recognised as Australia’s benchmark producer of méthode traditionnelle sparkling wines.
By the early 1990s, the Chandon winemaking team began producing small quantities of still wines, primarily for Cellar Door. They sourced grapes from some of the exceptional Victorian vineyards which supplied fruit for Chandon sparkling wines. For nearly two decades, the winemaking team has refined the still wine range, selecting the vineyard sites ideally suited to each wine style and perfecting their winemaking approach to produce wines displaying elegance, varietal expression and their unique Victorian regional origins.
In August 2008, the launch of still wines under the ‘Domaine Chandon’ label resulted in widespread acclaim from consumers and wine professionals alike. The accolades have continued ever since, with every wine in the range receiving excellent ratings and reviews from Australia’s wine critics.