Bellebonne cheers
There are around 250 million bubbles in a 750ml bottle of Champagne. At least, that's the estimate researcher Bruno Dutertre came up with after a three-year study carried out at Moët & Chandon during the late 1980s.
Strange, that. You never hear of anyone estimating the number of bubbles you'd find trapped in a soufflé. Or adding to the freshness of your daily loaf. That seems too trite and inconsequential. But somehow, the mere mention of sparkling wine changes the ground rules entirely.
Just ask Bellebonne winemaker Natalie Fryar.
She says the challenge of creating world-class sparkling wine is what drew her away from her roots in the wine region of McLaren Vale to the cooler, windswept landscapes of northern Tasmania.
It comes with the territory. Indeed, the task assumes monumental proportions when you take into account all of the factors that contribute to ultimate sparkling wine quality, Fryar says.
"The most important are found in the vineyard, not in the winery. Site aspect, soil type, microclimate, variety and berry maturity all play significant roles in the development of the fruit characteristics you get to work with each vintage. And they're just the beginning of a very long list."
When harvest begins, so too does the start of a specialised winemaking process that's measured in years rather than the weeks and months needed for table wines.
Fryar speaks with the voice of experience. She's been walking vineyard rows in Tasmania for well over two decades. That's when the University of Adelaide graduate was first appointed winemaker for the Jansz Tasmania Wine Company.
Owned by the Hill-Smith family since 1998, the company became an industry flagship during Fryar's 13-plus years as its senior sparkling winemaker and brand ambassador. When she left the company in September 2014 to become a full-time Tasmanian resident, it was to achieve the career ambition of establishing her own artisan sparkling wine brand: Bellebonne.
"I love this place with the passion of a newcomer," Fryar admits.
"When I landed in Launnie on January 2, 2001 – and then drove to Jansz Vineyard at Pipers Brook – my heart just broke. I thought, how can this place exist?"
"It is just so stunning. And the amazing thing for me as a winemaker more than 20 years later is that I still drive those same roads and I still experience those same feelings. This place is astounding."
Fryar's passion and enthusiasm for her project are infectious. When the sparkling wines from Bellebonne's inaugural vintage of 2015 were launched back in 2021, they were received with rapturous acclaim by wine industry influencers and critics alike.
"If there were ever an inaugural sparkling worthy of being lobbed into the market at a 3-digit price tag, this is it," wrote Tyson Stelzer on reviewing the 2015 Bellebonne Blanc de Blancs.
"It's taken more than 6 years for Natalie Fryar's 1st flagship to see the light of day, such is the long game of sparkling wine. Her inaugural Blanc de Blancs singly transcends Natalie Fryar's moniker of Australia's sparkling rosé queen, unequivocally and emphatically confirming her place as Australia's sparkling queen."
A former science teacher turned wine nerd, Stelzer has enjoyed a stellar career of his own in the sparkling wine world. In 2015, he was named International Wine & Spirit Communicator of the Year.
Stelzer's current tome - The Champagne Guide Edition VII Hardback (Hardie Grant, 2024) - has been described by respected Sydney author/critic and wine judge as 'the best guide ever published on Champagne.'
Now a decade on from Bellebonne's inaugural vintage, Fryar's small artisan operation based in the Tamar Valley is one of just two wineries in Australia to be awarded Stelzer's coveted 7-stars rating.
That's a career milestone the former South Australian is happy to accept.
Of course, it's not about a winery at all, she adds. It's about a place.
"The perfect match between a wine grape and its vineyard site is the winemaker's equivalent of a marriage made in heaven," she explains.
"All I want to do professionally is to capture some of the beauty of that place and put it in a glass, so that when people are drinking this same wine in London or in Shanghai or in Uzbekistan, they see the same beauty that I see.
"The tagline of Bellebonne is that it's made by Tasmania. Not just made in Tasmania. Tasmania is more than just a little island off Melbourne. It is something unique and it informs me as much as it informs the terroir – the soil, the grapes and the air. It informs me and I try to capture it here in every glass.
"That's the whole point of this project."