Old Luxters Farm Brewery: craft ales of the moment.

This multi-faceted business is also known as the Chiltern Valley Winery & Brewery and Old Luxters Vineyard and Barn (wedding reception venue), with a luxury farmhouse B&B (four rooms) and cookery school too; in addition, they make a range of fruit liqueurs and sell local cheeses, honey and chocolates among other things! Certainly couldn't accuse them of not being enterprising.

English Wine Week and wine guide

From www.lymebaywinery.co.uk

To mark ‘English Wine Week’ 2016 (to 5th June), I’ve done the second comprehensive update this year to my English wine mini-guide to include a couple of new names on the English wine scene, small and so far quite hush-hush, and a couple of conspicuously missing big names: Exton Park Vineyard (Hampshire), Sixteen Ridges (Worcestershire & Herefordshire), Denbies Wine Estate (Surrey), Lyme Bay Winery (Devon). And, for the first time, broadened the reach to take in ‘still’ whites, rosés and reds (the focus had previously been just on 'traditional method' sparklers).
This latter wine 'offering' used to be dominated by several lesser-known and Germanic sounding grape varieties – and some of them can make good wine e.g. Bacchus, Ortega, Reichensteiner – but, while tasting on the English Wine Producers stand at the recent London Wine Trade fair (along with a lot of other people it has to be said), it became clear that there’s an increasing amount of good quality Chardonnay and Pinot Noir coming our way. Not surprising perhaps, when you read (see guide for details) that these two ‘Champagne’ varieties are now the most planted, especially across southern England for creating traditional method fizz. So it makes absolute sense to offer wine consumers recognisable non-sparkling styles too from very recognisable varieties, particularly as some of these are rather tasty in an English ‘Chablis style’ for Chardonnay and light aromatic ‘Burgundy style’, or not dissimilar to certain 'German style', Pinot Noir reds. The main problem is the usual UK wine production dilemma: relatively small quantities mean prices remain quite high.
I’ve updated some of the existing winery profiles in this guide as well, with new vintage releases and labels which have also been highlighted: e.g. Hattingley Valley (Hampshire), Hush Heath Estate Winery (Kent), Chapel Down Winery (Kent), Furleigh Estate (Dorset). Buy the full-works 20-page PDF magazine for £1.99 using the PayPal button below to pay by card or using your own account (select it in drop-down menu).

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French wine e-magazine English wine guide Cava guide Slovenia & Croatia Portugal special

Click HERE for more about card payments, your privacy and terms and conditions. I will email the PDF supplement to you once I receive payment confirmation from PayPal. Enjoy.

More info on English Wine Week: englishwineproducers.co.uk.

English wine guide updated

The latest vintages - the delicious exuberant 2010 and finely 'structured' 2011 - of 'Champagne style' (they won't like me saying that, I can hear expensive-suited lawyers in Reims dictating a letter as I write...) sparkling wines from Henners Vineyard and Ridgeview Winery, both in East Sussex, have been added to my 15-page English Sparkling Wine PDF supplement, as well as some news on the 2015 harvest, burgeoning vineyard plantings and fizz production figures and other useful tit-bits of info. Buy it using the PayPal button below to pay by card or using your own account.

Henners 2010 Reserve and happy tasters in the background.

Click HERE for more about card payments, your privacy and terms and conditions. I will email the PDF supplement to you once I receive payment confirmation from PayPal. Enjoy.

England: festive sparkling wine - Henners & Ridgeview

Henners Vineyard in East Sussex is already featured in my English Wine Guide (click there to buy it), which I've now updated with their latest vintage releases as well as from Ridgeview Winery - e.g. Merret Grosvenor Blanc de Blancs 2011 - and others plus news about vintage 2015 etc. Here's a little New Year's Eve sneak-taster in the meantime:

Henners Brut 2010 (Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier, 3+ years lees-ageing, 10 g/l dosage (residual sugar), 12% abv) - Delicious maturing nose yet aromatic too with yeasty-bread and toasted oat cake notes, still fruity and fresh with lively acidity vs toasty oily richness on its elegant finish. Very tasty. £29.99 Virgin Wines (where I copied the bottle shot from), £154 for six Henners' cellar door.

English sparkling wine update

Upperton Vineyard: Andy Rogers surveys the lie of his land

To celebrate English Wine Week (goes to their website) this week, I've (finally) updated my now 20-page ("and counting") mini-guide to English sparkling wines. This includes profiles of 15 exciting English wine estates, vineyards, wineries and brands and notes on their 'Champagne method' fizz ranges. Featuring (three new entries) Upperton, Brightwell and Hattingley Valley, as well as updates on Digby, Henners, Hush Heath, Jenkyn Place, Danebury, Gusbourne, Chapel Down, Bolney, Bluebell, Ridgeview, Knightor and Furleigh. Plus a few facts, figures and thoughts on where the English (and Welsh) wine industry is at with the latest on vintage 2014 etc. Available as a PDF mini-mag with pics - buy it by card or your own Paypal account (although you don't need one to do this or subscribe) by clicking HERE. Click here to read more about using PayPal, general T&C, your privacy etc.

English Wine Week and wine guide June 2016: the latest version of this guide...

As well as the sparkling wineries above, for the first time I've broadened the reach to take in still whites, rosés and reds (the focus had previously been just on 'traditional method' sparklers). Buy the guide for just £2 or equivalent in your own currency.

Select:

French wine e-magazine   English wine guide   Cava guide   Slovenia & Croatia   Portugal special

Click HERE for more about card payments, your privacy and terms and conditions. I will email the PDF supplement to you once I receive payment confirmation from PayPal. Enjoy.

English Wine Week: 24 May - 1 June

English Wine Week kicks off today running to 1st June. Why not celebrate in style with my English sparkling wine supplement fizzing over with top sparklers including Digby, Henners, Hush Heath, Jenkyn Place, Danebury, Gusbourne, Chapel Down, Bolney, Bluebell, Ridgeview, Knightor and Furleigh. Full details by clicking on the link above.

More info about what's going on at wineries in England and Wales, tastings, in-store promotions etc. can be found on the EWW website:
www.englishwineproducers.co.uk

English sparkling wine supplement

I've put together a 20-page special supplement on English sparkling wines, which is fizzing over with great 'Champagne' lookalikes, and taste-alikes, from a dozen exciting English wine estates, vineyards, wineries and brands featuring Digby, Henners, Hush Heath, Jenkyn Place, Danebury, Gusbourne, Chapel Down, Bolney, Bluebell, Ridgeview, Knightor, Furleigh and many more. Plus a few facts, figures and comments on where the English fizz industry is at... Available as a PDF mini-mag - buy it by card or your own Paypal account (although you don't need one to do this or subscribe). Not free2view!

Click here to read more about subscribing, using PayPal and general T&C.

England: Furleigh Estate, Dorset

"I think we need to train these
solar leaf panels a bit higher!"
www.furleighestate.co.uk

Amid an ever increasing amount of talk about English sparkling wines and news of medals being won in international tasting competitions, Furleigh Estate was a new name for me until I tried this bottle of really rather good fizz. Another Champagne look-alike made from the same grapes, grown in sunny Dorset (well, perhaps 2012 was a challenging year as it was elsewhere for English and Welsh winemakers?), in the same traditional bottle-fermented and lees-aged way (their Classic Cuvée is left in bottle slowly ageing on the fine yeast lees for 15 months in fact, before being removed). The vineyards come to 85 rolling acres (34 hectares) across south-facing slopes surrounded by farmland, woods and lakes too in Salway Ash near Bridport, with well over half of that area planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier for sparkling wine production. They also make a red wine, a few whites and other sparklers including a rosé. The 2009 Classic Cuvée costs £25 a bottle, which might seem a bit dear but is about the same price as a half-decent Champagne brand; it works out at £2.50 a bottle less though if you buy a case of six, so perhaps not a bad idea for Christmas and New Year quaffing. Vineyard tours and tastings are available too on Fridays and Saturdays: click on their web link underneath the photo to find out more.

Classic Cuvée 2009 (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier; 12% alc.) - lovely fruity nose with complex toasted oat and floral oily notes, this has a very attractive combo of a little richness from those toasty yeasty bready flavours with rounded creamy texture vs crisp and refreshing bite and subtle fine bubbles lingering on the finish. Actually went surprisingly well with quite spicy Chinese and Thai king prawn dishes.

CLICK HERE FOR LATEST ON FURLEIGH.

Sparkling wine: France, England, Germany, Spain, Chile, Oz, Italy, S Africa...

THE LATEST VERSION OF THIS PAGE CAN NOW BE FOUND IN THE PAGE ARCHIVE HERE.

 

A gratuitously fizzy post simply to create one central URL for a handy 'wine words' side-bar link (below right) to all pieces on sparkling wine... Updated: from June 2015 posts and features on Champagne are now appearing on a special page HERE.

Gusbourne Estate, Kent

Champers vs English fizz

From gusbourne.com

Another idea for a mini-theme came to mind while sampling some nice fizz at London-based wine merchant Armit's recent tasting. They import the rather superlative Champagnes of Pierre Gimonnet et Fils and had them lined up alongside an English sparkling newcomer - relatively, their first "commercial" vintage was 2006 which wasn't released until the end of last year - from Kent called Gusbourne Estate in Appledore. And the verdict? Well, as you'll see below, my notes and "scores" on the excitingly simple 1 to 3 scale for all five wines are pretty much on a par. So, well done Gusbourne especially since they've only been making "Champagne style" fizz (same varieties, same ageing methods I'd guess) for six vintages, including the one they're probably picking now or about to. Classy wines although, as is the "problem" with these very small production, new-kid-on-the-block boutique English sparkling wine houses, the prices are more or less the same as the Gimonnet Champagnes. Not really a criticism - good luck in the current retail climate - just an observation, as I'm sure they've invested a lot of money into the estate and winery. Must go there sometime...
This reminds me to focus a bit more on English sparkling wines; it's been a while since I tried e.g. Ridgeview, Nyetimber, Camel, who all produce lovely fizz. There's a newish "does what it says on the label" website too covering the whole 'topic' with handy on-line shop: sparklingenglishwine.com. 


Cuis 1er Cru Brut NV Champagne, Gimonnet - classic balance of bread-y yeasty notes, a bit of roundness and texture vs nice steely bite. 2 £30
Gastronome Brut 2006 Vintage Champagne, Gimonnet - toastier vs tarter profile, fine and tight style with long tasty finish, still seems quite young really. 2+ £32
Fleuron 1er Cru Brut 2005 Vintage Champagne, Gimonnet - delicious bread-y nose with oat cake tones, rich vs tight mouth-feel with fresher acidity vs more of those enticing biscuit flavours. 2+ £36 


Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2006 (100% Chardonnay) - bread-y and lightly toasty vs nutty crisp side, subtle balance style and length. 2 £25-£30
Gusbourne Sparkling Rosé 2008 (Chardy, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier) - toasty with hints of chocolate and sweet red fruits vs crisp bite and dry texture, quite toasty finish but it's very tasty and different. 2 £25-£32

LATEST ON ENGLISH WINE HERE.