Champagne with no added sweetening

Ayala Zéro Dosage NV

Tasted by Angela Lloyd

Retail price approximately R425

 

South African winelovers have never had it so good when it comes to availability of champagne. As Michael Fridjhon wrote recently, Champagne has seen a volume increase of about 200% since the late 1990s. It's a situation anyone who loves the one and only champagne (try naming any other product, let alone sparkling wine, using that name and the authorities will be on you like a pack of hounds!) would be well advised to take advantage of, for more recently the Euro has strengthened quite alarmingly, pushing up the price of further imports, this in addition to stocks of champagne being under severe pressure.

With the bad news out of the way, the current abundance of champagne houses represented is matched only by the styles of bubbly offered: both the name of Ayala and its Zéro Dosage NV may well be new to many.

Ayala is located in the town of Aÿ, the names an association in sound only, otherwise the one has nothing to do with the other. Don Antonio de Ayala Vergara, a Spanish aristocrat, was the ancestor of the founder of the house, Edmond de Ayala, who in 1860 married the niece of the Viscount of Mareuil, himself instrumental in inviting Ayala to come to Champagne to learn the business. Mareuil's dowry to the couple was the Château of Aÿ along with some prime vineyards around the town.

Later, the House of Ayala was one of the 18 founder members of the Syndicate of the Grandes Marques, a body of the major firms (as opposed to individual grower producers) established in 1882, but disbanded in 1997. In 2005 Ayala was purchased by Société Jacques Bollinger, owned by the eponymous family.

Aÿ is located in the heart of the Montagne de Reims, the area of Champagne best noted for pinot noir and this is the dominant grape, with chardonnay and pinot meunier, in the blend of the Zéro Dosage NV.

The term Zéro Dosage is one of several which describes the champagne style where no final sweetener is added before the wine is finally closed with its cork and wire muzzle. Other names include Brut Sauvage, Ultra Brut or Sans Sucre, while local Méthode Cap Classique producer Villiera name their bubbly without dosage Brut Natural.

According to champagne authority Tom Stevenson, the style became fashionable in the early 1980s, when consumers looked for lighter, drier wines. They were encouraged by critics' positive reports of champagnes without dosage but what the consumers didn't realise was that those critics had tasted very old vintages, straight after the lees had been disgorged. This long rest on the lees - Stevenson reckons at least 10 years - is imperative to allow the wine to lose its youthful austerity and tartness and for the full autolytic reaction of lees with wine to take place. Many wines failed to fulfil such requirements and the style's initial success proved short lived as it proved unpleasant to drink.

Not an accusation that can be levelled at the Ayala Zéro Dosage NV, despite a shortish two years' lees contact. The blend is 42% pinot noir, 31% chardonnay and 27% pinot meunier - unusually in Champagne, exactly the same blend as the NV Brut Majeur - with 12% reserve wine from 2003 and a few older vintages. Chef de Cave, Hervé Augustin, maintains 'the reserve wines are critical to ensure a fine balance of our blends throughout the years.'

M. Augustin also confirms the wine will benefit from a year's aging after disgorging, 'to give some roundness and focus on the purity of the wine', which is why the date of disgorgement is indicated on the back label.

The wine is fine and elegant, its continuous pinprick bead dancing persistently on the tongue. The importance of pinot noir is evident in the delicate, raspberry/cherry purity, unclouded by any sense of autolysis. This and the reserve wine provide some fullness on the palate, though it finishes somewhat austere and the firm acid exposed. Overall balance leads me to guess that M. Augustin's suggestion to leave the wine for a further year will be well rewarded.

 

• Link to the Ayala website