The Hunt for Mrs Oliver LD is sold out for now, but if you would like to be notified when our next vintage is available, sign up below, and we’ll let you know as soon as it is released.
What is the Hunt for Mrs Oliver Late Disgorged?
The Hunt for Mrs Oliver has been a passion project for our winemaker Corrina since 2016. Fuelled by her love of Champagne styles, the glorious Fiano varietal and its suitability to McLaren Vale, as well as some inspiring visits to the home of Fiano in Campania, Italy.
Corrina teamed up with fizz making legend, Kate Laurie of Deviation Road wines to go on quite the adventure. The aim- to make a premium traditional method sparkling from Fiano.
Méthode Traditionelle means that the wine is bottle fermented, so that the bubbles are all created by yeast in the bottle during a secondary fermentation. Fiano is not a traditional sparkling variety, like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, but it has a very high natural acidity which is key for sparkling winemaking.
Thankfully, Corrina also had the foresight to leave (or maybe hide!) a tiny number of bottles, sitting quietly on yeast lees from that very first vintage, just to see what would happen. Time on yeast lees builds complexity and flavour in what was already a much sought after wine, while still maintaining bursting freshness. After 8 years on lees, and a new label design, we are thrilled to be able to offer this tiny batch to our customers.
What does Late Disgorged mean?
A key step in the making of traditional method Champagne, disgorgement is when all the sediment from the wine’s ageing process collects in the neck of the bottle during a technique called riddling.
In order to remove this sediment once it hasd collected, the bottle neck is plunged in freezing brine, capturing all the sediment in a little block of ice. This block is then ‘disgorged’, or expelled, by opening the seal on the bottle. Sparkling wines are then usually topped up with a dosage at this point to refresh the wine, and make it ready to drink.
A late disgorgement is usually when a wine has spent a much longer time ageing before this process, bringing much more complexity and character to the final wine.
In the case of The Hunt for Mrs Oliver Sparkling Fiano, this involved the 2016 & 2017 vintages – the very first sparkling Fianos we made – being aged to perfection before their disgorgement in 2024/2025.
Why release an older vintage?
The years impart incredible complexity and rich texture, creating a perfect balance between freshness and maturity.
Why is there so little of it?
It’s hard to put away too much of a wine away, especially when we had so little to start with, so our Late Disgorged Hunt for Mrs Oliver vintages are all made in extremely small quantities.
Corrina, Brioni, Sam & the OT Team