The climate in the Piccadilly Valley has a long-term average of 1,172 degree days during the growing season. Yearly rainfall is approximately 1,100mm. The 2015 vintage was exactly on average at 1,173 degree days. However, the three months of spring were warmer and drier than average. The start of summer was moderate and slightly warmer than average with some rain in January, tempered by cooler weather in March and April. Yields were lower than average in the Piccadilly Valley, and the quality was superb for the Piccadilly Valley sparkling wine varieties.
DAOSA is made following the Méthode Traditionnelle, (Method ClassicTM ), the method used in the Champagne region of France. Fruit was hand harvested on 23rd of February 2015 and whole bunch pressed, retaining only 550L per tonne of fruit pressed (similar to the Cuvée in Champagne). This gave very fresh acidity, clean juice and good primary fruit characters in the juice prior to fermentation. The juice was cold settled in tank for 3 months before being run into old barrels for primary fermentation. Once primary fermentation was completed, the barrels were topped and the wine stayed in barrel, with some lees stirring, for a further 23 months where it went through malolactic fermentation. The wine was then “tiraged”, by the addition of yeast and sugar to the wine just before bottling, in order to induce the secondary fermentation in bottle. The resultant sparkling wine was aged for 30 months in bottle before being disgorged with the addition of a low dosage of 7g/L in August 2019. The DAOSA Blanc de Blancs 2015 has spent more than 4 years on lees in total, in barrel and in bottle.
