Love + Glory: an Intentionally Non‑Traditional Sparkling Wine from McLaren Vale
At Hastwell & Lightfoot, we don’t make sparkling wine the traditional way it has always been done. Love + Glory is a deliberately modern sparkling wine — bright, dry, vibrant and unapologetically non‑traditional. Every decision, from grape variety to winemaking method, is intentional — guided by a commitment to authenticity rather than convention.
We believe sparkling wine should reflect its year, its place and its fruit, without being shaped or softened by tradition for tradition’s sake.
Why We Don’t Use the Traditional Method
Traditional‑method sparkling wines (like Champagne) rely on secondary fermentation in bottle to create bubbles. This process involves long periods of ageing on lees (spent yeast cells), which inevitably shapes the wine’s flavour profile.
Those wines are known for characters in the wine that are often described as:
- Bready
- Yeasty
- Nutty
- Creamy
But those flavours are the winemaking process speaking, not the fruit from the vineyard.
For Love + Glory, we wanted something entirely different: a sparkling wine that is fruit‑forward, energetic and expressive of McLaren Vale. Secondary fermentation and extended lees ageing soften and obscure exactly what we value most — freshness and vitality. It's for this reason we intentionally reject the traditional method in favour of modern sparkling wine carbonation techniques.
Why Love + Glory is Always Vintage-Declared
Many traditional sparkling wines rely on non-vintage blending, often using older base wines to achieve consistency year after year. While that approach can create reliability, it comes at a cost: freshness and fruit expression are softened, and the character of a single season is blurred.
We choose not to make non-vintage sparkling because we don’t want to rely on older tasting base wines nor do we want to blend away what makes each vintage distinct. Instead, we cultivate fresh, vibrant wines that are fruit-forward and expressive, capturing the immediacy of the year rather than polishing it away into a uniform style.
Which leads us to a question we often ask:
You wouldn’t buy a non-vintage Shiraz — so why settle for non-vintage sparkling?
At Hastwell & Lightfoot, we believe wine should be honest to the year, the season and the place it comes from. Every vintage tells its own story, shaped by nature and human choice — and we want you to taste that story.
That’s why Love + Glory is always vintage-declared. Fresh, expressive and true to McLaren Vale, year by year.
Climate‑Appropriate Varieties for McLaren Vale
Most traditional sparkling wines are crafted from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir — varieties that thrive in cool climates.
McLaren Vale is not a cool climate.
Rather than forcing ill‑suited grapes into our region, we choose sustainable, climate‑appropriate varieties that naturally shine here:
- Vermentino — delivering citrus, salinity and freshness
- Tempranillo — adding structure, texture and red‑fruit energy
Together, they form a cuvée that feels modern, regional and distinctly McLaren Vale.
This isn’t a sparkling wine pretending to be Champagne. It’s a sparkling wine that knows exactly where it comes from and screams it from the rooftops!
No Dosage. No Disguise. Sugar Free Sparkling Wine.
Many sparkling wines rely on dosage — the addition of sugar — to balance acidity or mask the flavours of aged base wine.
We don’t use dosage and we ferment our wine dry which means our sparkling wine is naturally sugar free.
Why?
- We don’t need to hide or freshen up old wine flavours
- We don’t need sweetness for balance
- We love a dry, precise style
You wouldn’t add sugar to Chardonnay to make it more appealing — and we feel the same way about sparkling wine.
Love + Glory is crisp, dry and clean, allowing the fruit and the vintage to speak clearly.
A Modern Sparkling Wine for a Modern Region
McLaren Vale is known for its innovation, sustainability and fearless approach to wine. Love + Glory reflects that spirit.
It’s not about rejecting tradition for the sake of it. It’s about choosing the method that best suits:
- Our climate
- Our fruit
- Our values
The result is a sparkling wine that is:
- Bright and vibrant
- Fruit‑driven
- Dry and refreshing
- Authentically McLaren Vale
Love + Glory: Sparkling, Reimagined
Love + Glory exists because we believe sparkling wine can be something more immediate, more expressive and more honest.
Not traditional. Not nostalgic. Just authentic.
If you’re looking for a sparkling wine that celebrates freshness over formula and place over process, Love + Glory is exactly that.
Modern sparkling wine crafted with intention in McLaren Vale.