Top 10 English still wines

It’s English Wine Week and the buzz around English wine generated by the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium continues to be felt.

Earlier this week The drinks business cherrypicked its Top 10 Things to Do During English Wine Week. Here we take a closer look at growing number of excellent wines being produced on these shores.

English sparkling wines, tremendous though they can be, already receive ample exposure, however. We felt it was high time to take a look at the impressive range of high-quality still wines now being made by English producers.

That’s why, based on the considered opinions of the drinks business team, but also based on the achievements of English wines in international competitions, in the pages that follow we present out top 10 English still wines…

Lyme Bay Shoreline

Devon winery Lyme Bay is a relative newcomer to the English wine industry. In 2009 and 2010 the company planted 26,000 vines within a stone’s throw of the winery. It also sources grapes from a select group of growers in the South of England. Its first harvest was in 2014.

Lyme bay recently became a member of English Wine Producers. As well as producing a sparkling range and a single-vineyard Bacchus, the company also makes country wines, cider and mead.

As the name suggests, the Lyme Bay Shoreline – made from Seyval Blanc, Bacchus and Pinot Noir – is marketed as a classic seafood wine – dry and zingy with lemon, grapefruit, nettle and floral notes. It has won a string of awards since its release.

Gusbourne Guinevere Chardonnay

Produced in Appledore in Kent, Gusbourne’s Guinevere is a serious Chardonnay which really shows the potential for high-quality, barrel-fermented white wines in this country – indeed, it was picked out by Oz Clarke in his presentation at the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium as one of the wines pointing the way for the English wine industry.

This is a cool-climate, barrel-fermented Chardonnay with a generous nose of butter and creamy oak and a refreshing citrus streak. Impressive length, too. An English wine that could be laid down for a handful of years with interesting results.

Gusbourne Pinot Noir

Gusbourne Estate is also setting the bar for English Pinot Noir. The clay and sandy loam soil in Appledore combined with Gusbourne’s enviable vineyard sites produce an impressive Pinot by any standards.

The grapes are completely de-stemmed and go through a 48-hour cold soak. The wine is then transferred to French oak, a small proportion of it new, for nine months.

Sharpham Dart Valley Reserve

Sharpham Vineyard near Totnes in Devon has been producing wine for more than 25 years. It specialises in dry whites from the cool-climate grape Madeleine Angevine.

From vineyards close to the picturesque river Dart, with a small amount of grapes sourced from independent growers, Sharpham produces a range of 12 wines. Its varietal Bacchus is a highlight, but especially so is its Dart Valley Reserve, and off-dry white made from a blend of Madeleine Angevine, Phoenix and Bacchus.

A light, fresh wine given added complexity by partial ageing in American oak,

Three Choirs Siegerrebe

With around 80 acres, Gloucestershire’s Three Choirs is one of England’s bigger estates. First planted in way back in 1973 (with its first vintage in 1976), Three Choirs continues its innovative wine production, with a number of acres set aside as an experimental vineyard. It is from here that a number of new varieties now more widely grown first emerged.

Three Choirs is situated within a unique microclimate, sheltered by the Malverns and the Brecon Beacons. Its temperature-controlled winery houses all stainless steel tanks, with warm room for red wines, for which French and American oak barriques are used.

Red grape varieties used are Rondo, Regent, Triomphe, Pinot Noir, while white include Bacchus, Phoenix Seyval Blanc, Reichensteiner, Schönburger, Madeleine Angevine, Huxelrebe and Siegerrebe, from which this impressively rich and aromatic varietal wine is made.

This is also one picked out for special mention by Oz Clarke at ICCWS 2016.Siegerrebe was created by German viticulturalist Dr Georg Scheu in 1929 by crossing Madeleine Angevine and Gewürztraminer.

Chapel Down Kit’s Coty Estate Chardonnay

Widely regarded as one England’s best current Chardonnay expressions, and another Oz Clarke favourite, Chapel Down’s oak-aged, single-vineyard King’s Coty Estate Chardonnay is named after a neolithic monument close to Aylesford.

The grapes were whole-bunch pressed and wild-fermented in old barriques, with the wine then matured on its lees, creating a remarkably textured Chardonnay that few producers in England can match. Flavours are of fresh citrus, white peach and floral notes, with hints of butterscotch and subtle spice.

Camel Valley Dry Bacchus

Bacchus, a cool-climate grape whose flavour profile sits somewhere between Sauvignon Blanc and Muscat, some say, has been picked out by some producers as a potential signature grape for the English wine industry.

There are plenty of interesting expressions of it on the market now, a prime example of which is from Cornwall’s largest winery, Camel Valley. A crisp and aromatic white with gage, lime and tropical fruit notes.

Bolney Estate Foxhole Pinot Noir

A possible pretender to Gusbourne for the English Pinot crown, Bolney’s Foxhole Pinot Noir.

The Bolney Estate was established in 1972 with 3 acres of vines. Nowadays, the estate spans 39 acres and is one of the few wineries in England specialising in red wine.

The Foxhole is a fragrant, well balanced, medium bodied wine full of red cherry flavours and hints of toasted oak.

Davenport Horsmonden Dry White

An organic winery based in Horsmonden in Kent, Davenport produces some charming whites such as this a blend of five grape varieties grown in the winery’s original vineyard plot.

This wine has been made every year since 1993 and has won many accolades since then.

Made from a blend of Bacchus, Faberrebe, Ortega, Siegerrebe, Huxelrebe, from Davenport’s oldest vines, it has has been likened to a Sauvignon Blanc and is often mistaken for a New Zealand Sauvignon, but can perhaps be told apart by its underlying mineral structure.

Chapel Down Orange Bacchus

Could a trend be developing in England for ‘orange’ wine? Surely not, but two skin contact wines have been released recently: one from Litmus Wines and this one from Chapel Down.

Described by the Kent-based producer as “unashamedly different”, the £20 wine, targeted at the premium on-trade and independent wine merchants, is made from ripe Bacchus grapes grown in Kent from the 2014 vintage.

The grapes were destemmed, crushed and left to ferment spontaneously in contact with their skins, adding additional aromas, tannin and complexity to the wine. The fermentation was completed in fifth-fill French oak barrels for additional weight and depth on the palate.

According to chief winemaker Josh Donaghay-Spire, the wine boasts “intense aromas of smoky stewed apple, hints of citrus rind and an
 almond-like bitterness on the palate”.

Explaining his reasons for making an orange wine, he commented: “With England increasingly becoming known for Bacchus, I was eager to explore its potential. Bacchus is often compared to Sauvignon Blanc, however our orange Bacchus has added weight and depth of flavour with a rich palate and an interesting tannic edge that makes it ideal for pairing with smoked meat or oily fish.

“England is gaining a deserved reputation for world-class sparkling wines, but I hope our orange Bacchus demonstrates the quality of English still wines,” he added.