Graham Beck Wines recently launched their sparkling new Méthode Cap Classique called Brut Zero and just like the number zero it took a while to find its right-full place.
You see, as those who are familiar with the history of zero, both as a concept and a number, will know, zero came rather late to the numeral party. According to the Charles Seife zero first came to be between 400 and 300 B.C. in Babylon. Initially used as a placeholder—a way to tell 1 from 10 from 100, zero only began to take shape as a number, rather than a punctuation mark between numbers, in India in the fifth century A.D. It was sort of a natural progression. Without the ones and twos we probably never would have developed zero, but today its an essential addition to our way of life.
Now over the last thirty ode years Graham Beck built up their impressive MCC portfolio with ones and twos, like the Brut NV and Bliss Demi Sec NV to the eights and nines like the Blanc de blanc and Cuvee Clive, but they were missing a zero.
So in 2005 Pieter Ferreira, Cellar Master at Graham Beck Wines, jumped at the chance to complete their portfolio by creating a zero dosage MCC.
“Making this style of sparkling wine is a challenge and a risk: there is no margin for error in a zero dosage wine”, Pieter said. “That’s why there are so few of them. It’s an avant-garde style.”
The purpose of dosage in a Méthode Cap Classique is to replace the small amount of wine lost during disgorgement – the forceful expending of yeast cells from the top of the bottle. It’s the sugar content in dosage that determines the category of the wine; zero dosage wines being the driest possible.
Without the addition of sugar, which can be used to balance a blend, the wine is laid bare. The effervescence magnifies the pure and natural flavour – and along with it, any possible faults. For Pieter, the grapes provided by vintage 2005 showed great promise for a no-dosage style and it’s only today, after almost seven year of development that we can welcome Brut Zero into it’s rightful place in the Graham Beck MCC line-up. Soon to be an essential additional to every bubbly lovers collection.
