Method Traditional

One of New Zealand?s best bubbles and one of its most consistent, complex handmade wines; it's typically a 70/30 blend of toasty flavours from Pinot Noir with crisp citrus creamy ones from Chardonnay. It comes from one of the country's oldest producers of traditional method sparkling wine - Rudi Bauer in Central Otago, who pioneered Quartz Reef Brut NV in the early days of Otago as a wine region.

Quartz Reef Brut NV began life when winemaker Rudi Bauer teamed up with a visiting French winemaker Clothilde Chauvet (daughter of champagne maker Marc Chauvet). Together they pioneered this high quality, traditional method sparkling wine, using mostly Pinot Noir (now 72% of the blend) with the balance being Chardonnay. The wine is typically aged for two years on lees in bottle following its second fermentation - longer than most champagnes. No wonder it massively over delivers on both taste and price. This is a stunning sparkling wine. Ignore at your peril.

Delicious complex champagne with great depth and super fresh flavours; amazing value for money. Andr? Clouet Grand Reserve is aged on lees for four years before disgorgement. It's made from 100% Pinot Noir, which is where all its rich, deliciously toasty aromas come from and the style is a complex blend of wine from the 2015 vintage with depth of flavour coming from the 50% proportion of older reserve wines from 2014, 2013, 2012, 2008, 2005, 2004 and 2002. 

The dosage is 8 grams per litre, which makes it dry in taste and in style. 

This wine offers substantially more flavour than most champagnes at this price on the market today - and kicks many more expensive bubbles to touch too.

Champagne Andr? Clouet dates back to 1741. Today the family owns eight hectares of estate vines in the best middle slopes of Bouzy and Ambonnay in the Champagne region from which it makes (along with purchased grapes) great wines of richness and depth. Andr?  Clouet Grand Reserve is one of our staff faves here at Regional and is made from 100% Pinot Noir grapes, all grown on grand cru vineyards and aged on lees for four years before disgorgement. That is significantly longer than the legal minimum of 18 months aging on lees, pre release, in the Champagne region. 

This long aging time provides great depth and complex flavours to this deliciously flavoursome non vintage champagne. It offers incredible taste and richness.

* The Andr? Clouet Grande Reserve is also available in half bottles.

If you?re after a complex champagne made from the great Pinot Noir grape, try this.

Cloudy Bay Wines first made its name with inimitable Sauvignon Blanc and has since forged a reputation for top quality wines made in a range of styles, of which Pelorus bubbly punches significantly above its weight. It?s made using the same winemaking methods as champagne, which provides this wine with its creamy, rich, flavoursome style, full body and dry finish. It is typically aged on lees for two years before the bubbly is disgorged, corked and labelled. It contains 8 grams of dosage per litre, which makes it taste dry with the balance of fresh acidity in the wine.

It offers stunning value at this price.  

Mo?t Imp?rial is one of the biggest volume champagnes in the world from the vast house of LVMH (Louis Vuitton Mo?t Hennessey) and is typically a blend of 30 to 40% Pinot Noir, 30 to 40% Pinot Meunier with 20 to 30% Chardonnay for balancing crispness and freshness. It's made from Mo?t & Chandon's vineyards in all of the five main grapegrowing areas in the Champagne region.

Veuve Clicquot is one of the world's biggest selling champagnes and is produced by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey in a range of styles and packaging. 

Veuve is named after the late, great Widow Clicquot, who was left not only a widow aged 27 but also in charge of running a champagne house. Her legacy is to have left both the brand and the region in better condition than she found them, mostly famously by inventing riddling; the turning of the bottle to remove the yeast sediment into its neck, prior to disgorgement. This resulted in higher quality, cleaner, fresher bubbles in both look and taste. Her quest was quality and she is widely credited with having raised it significantly in the Champagne region and in the bottles it produces.

The yellow label non vintage (NV) blend is typically made up of 55% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier.

Daniel le Brun is the first person to make traditional method sparkling wine (that's code for made the same way as champagne) in New Zealand. He has since sold his own brand name and created another sparkling wine company. 

This wine remains one of New Zealand's most loved and well known bubbles from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes grown in Marlborough. It has extended lees aging time to gain its fresh bakery flavours and long finish. A well known wine that delivers on body, dryness, depth of flavour - and all at such a modest price. No wonder it's a fave for so many New Zealanders.

Great flavours of bold and powerful yeasty freshness come from Champagne Bollinger's blend of over 85% Grand and Premier crus (top ranked vineyards in the Champagne region). Bolly is made from the three main Champagne varieties: 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 15% Meunier. It is cellar aged for twice as long as required by appellation regulations and modestly dosed at between 7 and 8 grams per litre, which beautifully balances the already intense depths of flavour and  structural support from the blend, the fresh acidity from being made with grapes grown in a cool climate and a portion of oak fermentation (larger format and older oak) to encourage gentle, slow oxidative fermentation. 

The taste of Bollinger is dry, toasty, savoury and rich in flavour with elegance from its fresh acidity, depth of flavour and long finish.

Bollinger was founded in 1829.

Bollinger is one of the great champagnes, not only in perception, due to its to its high profile affiliation with Ab Fab and James Bond. 

Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes are gently pressed into production to make this dry, medium bodied bubbly from Marlborough, which was fermented with wild yeasts and aged for 18 months in bottle on lees; the decomposing yeast cells following fermentation in the bottle. It contains 8.8 grams of residual sugar per litre and alcohol of 12.5% ABV, giving it a medium body and lovely balanced flavours. It’s made by Allan Scott and his winemaking team.

Member of Methode Marlborough.

Chardonnay with bubbles combines two of the wine world's most popular things and this wine comes from Limoux in the southern French region of Languedoc. This is a fresh, crisp wine made using the Champagne method. Extended ageing on the lees adds toasted notes and a rich texture. This wine is exceptionally good for the price.

Pierre Emmanuel Taittinger runs this famous champagne house with his son Clovis and daughter, Vitalie, who both work beside him in the day to day running of Champagne Taittinger. It is one of the grand marques champagnes. This means it is one of the top tier, best known and most highly respected producers in the Champagne region and it has built its reputation on Chardonnay dominant bubblies, with the Comtes de Champagne Blanc de Blanc being the pinnacle of its production.

This non vintage (NV) champagne is also Chardonnay dominant, which is where its bright, clean, fresh and refreshing acidity and creamy notes come from. 

It is a beautiful and classic champagne. One of our favourites.

A beautiful Blanc de Noir made entirely from lightly pressed Pinot Noir grapes and made by Clos Henri in Marlborough. The light pressing provides no colour to the wine but retains all the savoury, earthy, toasty flavours you'd hope for and expect from this great red grape variety. 

All grapes are hand picked grapes and the wine is aged on fine lees for 10 months, partially in stainless steel and partially in old oak. The wine was stored in the winery's cellar to allow a slow bottle fermentation and secondary aging on yeast lees for a minimum of 18 months. A few hundred bottles are disgorged at a time to release onto the market, leaving the remainder aging on its lees (sur lattes). 

Clos Henri began 22 years ago in Marlborough when the French Bourgeois family expanded their winemaking from the heart of Sancerre in the tiny village of Chavignol to Blenheim, in 2001. Now that their vines are 22 years of age , the family feels that they are only now starting to reflect and express the taste of the land. This family retains their land and winemaking in Chavignol where they have made wine for 11 generations.

Laurent-Perrier Brut NV is enjoyed for its creamy softness which comes from Chardonnay, the dominant grape in this elegant sparkling wine.

The Laurent-Perrier Champagne house was founded in 1812 and is the main company of the Laurent-Perrier Group, whose other flagship brands include the houses of Salon, De Castellane and Delamotte. Laurent-Perrier Group also acquired Chateau Malakoff in 2004.

Complex creamy champagne with Chardonnay in the lead, giving its citrusy purity and freshness in this lovely Champagne, which is relatively new to our shelves. Champagne Bergere is an exciting modern Champagne based in Ferebrianges, and with a building on the famous Avenue de Champagne in Epernay. The Bergere family has grown grapes since 1848 and the winery was founded in 1949 to release champagnes under the family name. 

Today the family owns 65 hectares of vineyards split between the prestigious Cote des Blancs, Vallée du Petit Morin and the Côte de Sezanne, which themselves are the southern sector of the greater Cotes des Blancs region.  

Current generation Adrien Bergere heads up the estate with a primary focus on Chardonnay, low dosage across the range, extended lees ageing and judicious use of oak barrels to tease out the full potential of the wines.

If you like Chardonnay, you'll love this sparkling Hawke's Bay blancs de blancs made from  Alpha Domus winery. 

All of the grapes in this wine were hand picked, whole bunch pressed and fermented to bone dry (one gram of residual sugar). It was made from 26 year old Clone 6 Chardonnay vines grown at Bridge Pa in Hawke’s Bay and disgorged at Soljans in West Auckland, which has all the gear for making high end sparkling wine. 

This beautiful creamy, full bodied bubbly over delivers big time, showing yet again just how good New Zealand's best sparkling wines can be. 

Veuve Clicquot is one of the world's biggest selling champagnes and is produced by Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessey in a range of styles and packaging. 

Veuve is named after the late, great Widow Clicquot, who was left not only a widow aged 27 but also in charge of running a champagne house. Her legacy is to have left both the brand and the region in better condition than she found them, mostly famously by inventing riddling; the turning of the bottle to remove the yeast sediment into its neck, prior to disgorgement. This resulted in higher quality, cleaner, fresher bubbles in both look and taste. Her quest was quality and she is widely credited with having raised it significantly in the Champagne region and in the bottles it produces.

This magnum of yellow label non vintage (NV) champagne is typically made up of 55% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier.