Anyone familiar with 1960s sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies will remember the deeply intoned lyrics in the show's jingle, 'black gold, Texas tea'. Though not as lucrative as Jed Clampet's black gold (slang for oil, for those of you who missed the show), when it comes to sparkling red wines, one could intone, 'black bubbles, Australian tea'.
There is something quintessentially Australian about deeply opaque sparkling wines, which are requisite at Aussie summer barbecues. Once cheekily labeled 'sparkling Burgundy', despite their non-Burgundy origin and dubious varietal composition, most of Australia's black bubbles are produced from the dark shiraz grape.
Good-quality sparkling shiraz producers employ the same techniques used to make champagnes such as Dom Perignon and Le Grand Dame, except they utilise still red wine as their base instead of white. Due to the tannic character of red wine, sparkling reds have an unfamiliar astringency that is an acquired taste for some drinkers. Most Australians have acquired the taste.
Only two wineries in America, Geyser Creek and Wattle Creek, produce sparkling red wines - and the winemakers at both are Australian born. No country has embraced sparkling red wine as enthusiastically as Australia but red fizz can also be found in Germany, France and Italy.
Italy's lightly fizzy, sweet lambrusco, from the Emilia-Romagna region - the same region famed for parmesan cheese - enjoyed its heyday in the 60s and 70s. If you are old enough to remember the first runs of The Beverly Hillbillies, then you might also remember Reunite brand's smashingly successful marketing campaign 'Reunite on ice'. When a wine supplier suggests drinking their wine with ice cubes, you have a good indication of the wine's quality, which explains why many wine connoisseurs still shudder at the thought of red wine with bubbles.
Winemakers in France's Champagne region are not permitted to produce sparkling red wine, though some champagne houses make a suspiciously deep-hued sparkling wine labeled as rose. More commonly, France's red-toned bubblies are crafted from pinot noir grapes ripened in the cool Loire Valley.