Weightstone Gris de Noirs Extra Brut 2021 / 2022
Type: Sparkling
Country: Taiwan
Region: Taichung
Grape Variety: 100% Black Queen (2021) / 72% Black Queen, 15% Muzinn, 11% Golden Muscat, 2% Musann Blanc (2022)
Climate: Subtropical climate
Winemarking: Crafted using the Traditional Method. The base wine is whole-cluster pressed and fermented with wild yeasts at low temperatures in stainless steel tanks and old oak barrels for over a year. It then undergoes secondary bottle fermentation on its lees (sur latte) for more than 30 months.
Terroir: Multi-vineyard blend combining the flat coastal sands of Erlin (home to ancient Black Queen vines) with the high-altitude, volcanic and alluvial basin of Puli.
Color: Pale pink / Salmon-rose
Nose: Restrained yet highly perfumed bouquets of wild raspberry, green plum, fresh strawberry, roselle, and delicate rose petals.
Palate: Crisp and highly energetic with bright, lively acidity and fine, persistent bubbles. It reveals intense red fruit profiles layered with a distinct savory salinity and finishes cleanly with a faint touch of sweet toffee.
About the Winery:
Winemaking was introduced to Taiwan in the 1950s when the nation was under Japanese rule. The primary grape varieties were Black Queen and Golden Muscat, both heat-resistant hybrid varieties suitable for a subtropical climate, developed in Japan and the USA respectively. In the country’s prime, there were some 5,200 hectares of vineyards in Taiwan.
Weightsone’s story began in 2010 when the Taiwan Agricultural Research Station developed a new grape variety called Musann Blanc, which caught the eye of Ben Yang. At that time, grape growers were switching crops to more lucrative fruits because the Taiwanese government had stopped subsidies to them in 1996. But Ben had the vision to make wine from this 100% Taiwanese variety using modern technology. He eventually found an ideal vineyard site of 4.6 hectares at 480 metres altitude, once the shoreline of an ancient lake, in Puli (埔里) in the south-east of Taichung. There were still stone fishing weights carved by aboriginal fishermen there – hence Ben named the winery Weightstone.
With the help of a team of consultants from Napa Valley, Puli vineyard was established and planted with Musann Blanc. Unfortunately, Ben passed away in 2012 before the first wine was bottled, and the responsibility of carrying out his mission fell to his daughter, Vivian Yang.
Today, Weightstone has expanded to making some 10,000 bottles of seven wines from grapes sourced from four vineyards. But with only around 60 hectares of land under vines in the whole of Taiwan, winemaking there remains a niche industry.
