NAUTILUS CUVÉE BRUT NV

Trophy for Champion Sparkling Wine – New Zealand Wine of the Year Awards 2018
Platinum Medal for Best New Zealand Sparkling – Decanter World Wine Awards 2017 
Gold Medal – New Zealand Wine of the Year Awards 2018

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70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay

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Nautilus Marlborough Cuvee is consistently rated as one of New Zealand's very best bubblies and here it is again at the very top of the table at the New Zealand Wine of the Year Awards 2018 with the Trophy for Champion Sparkling Wine. In previous years it has won the Trophy at the Air New Zealand Wine Awards numerous times. It has also had fantastic ratings from critics and wine shows worldwide and numerous top listings in Cuisine. Made in the traditional method from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay it is aged on its lees for at least three years to develop delicious biscuity toasty flavours before being disgorged. 

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Winery notes (NV)
"The Nautilus Cuvée Marlborough Brut NV is pale straw in colour with a fine bead and creamy mousse. The wine has a distinctive nutty bouquet, which shows the richness of a Pinot Noir dominant blend and the benefits of extended maturation. An elegant finely structured wine in which the fruit flavours harmonise with biscuity, yeast derived complexities and crisp acidity to give a lingering dry finish."

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5 Stars & Top 10 Cuisine Sparkling Tasting, November 2017 (NV)
"Nautilus is another star in the Marlborough sparkling galaxy. Lemon characters, laced with bready complexity, come through on the dry, refreshing palate. There is a lightness and elegance to this wine, which carries to a lengthy finish. Serve it alongside salty hors d’oeuvres."

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96/100 Decanter 2017 (NV)
"Complex and intriguing bouquet, with decent autolysis leading to aromas of citrus, some spice and stone fruit. Lovely bottle development with flavours that reflect the nose, along with nutty hints. Decent length and complexity with a really elegant mousse."

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5 Stars & 94/100 Bob Campbell MW (NV)
"Elegant, powerful sparkling wine showing the effect of three years "entirage" with plenty of aromatic yeast autolysis character. Silken-textured wine with lovely bready, chocolate flavours. Quite champagne-like. Between 5% and 15% of the blend comprises reserve wines from previous vintages that have been aged in old oak barriques for extra complexity and character. The quality of this non-vintage wine has steadily increased in recent years. It is now one of the country's very best sparkling wines."

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4 ½ Stars Michael Cooper, 2018 Edition (NV)
"Recent releases of this non-vintage, bottle-fermented sparkling have generally revealed an intensity and refinement that positions the label among the finest in the country. Made with Pinot Noir (mostly) and Chardonnay, it is blended with older, reserve stocks held in old oak barriques and disgorged after a minimum of three years aging on its yeast lees. Lean and crisp, piercing and long, it's a beautifully tight, vivacious and refined wine, its Marlborough fruit characters enriched with intense, bready aromas and flavours. The sample I tasted in September 2017 was – as the back label indicates helpfully – bottled in September 2013 and disgorged in May 2017. A blend of Pinot Noir (70 per cent) and Chardonnay (30 per cent), it was blended with 7 per cent reserve stocks. Light lemon/green, it is very fresh and elegant, with vibrant, citrusy, slightly appley and nutty flavours, showing good intensity, and a dryish (6 grams/litre of residual sugar), crisp, tight-knit finish."

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18.5/20 Joelle Thomson, December 2017 (NV)
"Modelled on Bollinger, this Pinot Noir dominant Marlborough bubbly is made in the traditional method, which is another way of saying like champagne – second fermentation in the bottle. It’s then ages on lees (decomposing cells after fermentation) for an extended period of time, which provides big rich toasty flavours; the hallmark of Bollly and Pinot Noir dominant sparkling wine styles. A stunner."