2025 Fearon Sparkling Ancestrale

Tasting Notes

Our first foray into the world of bubbles, this sparkling wine was made in the Methode Ancestrale (or petillant naturel) style. This style captures the raw and wild essence of the wine in its youth, with further texture and flavour gained from aging the wine in bottle on the yeast lees (sediment). A consistent and gentle bead of superfine bubbles gives way to heady aromas of candied lime, lemon sherbet and quince sorbet, with baked apple, brioche and sourdough characters from the lees aging. A pleasant tingly spritz carries luscious guava and green mango tropical fruit flavours through the palate, while the zippy and fresh acid line and some residual sweetness gives both structure and a balanced roundness.

Vineyard

The fruit was sourced from our good friends and neighbours Rascals Corner, whose vineyard lies on the opposite side of the valley to our own Hillsedge vineyard. Planted on a narrow sloping hillside between pockets of native Jarrah forest, soils are dark loam with some gravel on the flatter sections. The gentle slope and northerly aspect ensures full exposure to the sun during the middle of the day, but a combination of elevation, persistent breezes and shading by the forest from the early morning and late afternoon sun tempers ripening. The result is fruit that marries both full flavour ripeness and phenolic maturity.

Winemaking

Sauvignon Blanc fruit was hand harvested at moderate sugar ripeness, gently pressed, and the cloudy juice was fermented in a stainless steel tank with wild yeast. The wine was then bottled towards the end of fermentation, with the final stages of yeast activity in bottle resulting in the carbonation. The wine was then rested on the “lees” (dead yeast sediment), for 11 months prior to release, with the result being a rustic, zesty and fresh, lightly spritzy aperitif wine.

Season

After the extraordinarily hot, dry and compressed harvest of 2024, 2025 was a welcome return to a more balanced and rhythmic, classic southwest WA growing season. The winter of 2024 saw slightly above average temperatures, and above average rainfall that started later but persisted well into spring. Mild and settled conditions around budburst allowed balanced and even early shoot growth progressively hastened as temperatures warmed into October. Spring into early summer saw a perfect rhythm of clear sunny days interspersed with overcast and rainy conditions. Flowering occurred during generally settled weather, resulting in even berry set and good crop levels. A massive rain event towards the end of November saw over 100mm of rain fall in the Ferguson Valley district in less than 24 hours, stimulating strong secondary growth in vines that necessitated additional canopy management. Summer was generally warm with few temperature extremes. A mild heatwave preceded the onset of harvest in second week of February, with white varieties being harvested in quick succession. March saw milder temperatures and cool nights, and with the excellent residual soil moisture allowed perfect conditions for a long gradual ripening of red varieties. The last of the reds were harvested at the start of April. All in all, 2025 will go down as one of the finest vintages in Geographe’s viticultural history, with the wines destined to age gracefully for many years.