“English wine now deserves to be taken seriously”

Corney & Barrow’s Rebecca Palmer expressed her belief in English wine as the merchant announced its first exclusive English wine agency, Wiston Estate.

Explaining the decision to take on the producer, Palmer, who is associate director and buyer at the independent wine merchant, told the drinks business, “We feel that English wine now deserves to be taken seriously.”

Continuing she said, “It is Corney & Barrow’s aim to supply our customers with benchmark wines from around the world and it was time to include England in that picture.

“We have been biding our time, watching out for the estate we felt had that unique star quality and we are convinced we have found that in Wiston.”

Wiston is situated in Sussex’s South Downs and was established in 2008 by the Goring family to make traditional method sparkling wine.

Palmer said that she plans to work with the Goring family – who are not related to the owners of the London hotel by the same name – “to position Wiston as England’s benchmark sparkling fine wine.”

Palmer described Winston’s production as “minute” and commented that the launch cuvée, a 2008 vintage brut, would be supplied initially to Corney & Barrow’s “best on-trade customers, before releasing the remainder of our yearly allocation more widely in following months.”

Speaking of possible production expansion, Palmer added, “There are plans to plant a further site, the most magnificent amphitheatre I have ever seen with a gradient so steep we almost rolled the Gorings’ Landrover.”

Click here to find out more about Wiston Estate.