I have focused exclusively on London-based wineries in this elite publication only twice in eight years. In June 2019, I wrote a piece entitled ‘Urban jungle’, and in September 2023, my column was headed ‘London calling’. Following this timeline, a fascinating and invisible thread of unrelenting progress has ensued.
The careful augmentation of style and delicious accuracy of our capital’s stalwart, pioneering estates are nothing short of incredible. They have all leapt forward, seemingly as one, with the absolute quality of their creations.
As a city, London ought to be rightly proud of London Cru, Vagabond and Black Book, along with Renegade, whose wines I have not tasted in a while, as these are all incredible set-ups. But in terms of newsworthiness, one of this quartet has recently celebrated an astonishing milestone.
Late last year, Vagabond moved from its fashionable Battersea Power Station HQ to an extraordinary purpose-built site in Canada Water. This spanking-new, beautifully designed winery will shine an even brighter spotlight on the potential and professionalism of our home-grown wines.
Vagabond Urban Winery is accessible from just about every corner of our capital, given it sits atop Canada Water’s Jubilee Line and London Overground stops, only minutes from London Bridge, Waterloo and countless other vital transport hubs. When you emerge from the station, the surroundings are fresh, modern, and eye-catching, with more of a Sydney than a Sydenham vibe.
The winery itself is what I imagine every boutique vigneron could only dream of, and the wine bar/shop, with its spectacular views of the Canada Dock Boardwalk, has been designed so perfectly that every surface, detail, and material flows from the open-plan winery to the bar and back again in seamless harmony.
The capacity for entertainment here is seemingly unlimited, so let’s hope curious Londoners and wide-eyed tourists hear of this epic destination and see for themselves just how impressive it is. It makes sense, too, that the wines live up to the location, as you will see in my notes below. And while this is the gleaming new jewel in our capital city’s winery crown, I know Sergio Verrillo receives visitors almost every day to his Queenstown Road winery, not least because I am his immediate neighbour, and Alex Hurley, at Fulham’s London Cru, oversees the original London winery, and it looks as achingly cool today as it did when it opened twelve years ago. So, our jungle has evolved into a calling, and this calling, with the help of its talented members, has now become a genuine destination.
2022 Black Book, Pygmalion Chardonnay, South Bank Vineyard, Essex, England
Pre-release price of £35.00
www.blackbookwinery.com
I tasted a selection of wines from Sergio Verrillo’s ever-evolving portfolio just before the Christmas break. A handful were available for immediate purchase, some were pre-release, and the rest were clean-skins awaiting their labels and destined for future fame.
This was undoubtedly Sergio’s finest and most memorable assault on my senses to date. 2024 Fragments of Time Sauvignac is drawn from the Crouch Valley, and this curious Sauvignon/Riesling hybrid sees a smattering of French oak during fermentation, and a short six months of ageing.
It is unfiltered and unfined, and the texture, flesh, and zestiness found here are beguiling. This is a delicious, elderflower, spice, and citrus-soaked wine with a super-mineral finish. This refreshing, pristine minerality is a Black Book signature and appears in every bottle.
A preview of a 2024 Pinot Gris showed superb, grippy, pithy notes, with engaging spice and teasing restraint, while 2023 Nightjar Pinot Noir Clayhill Vineyard (a preview) was bitter, bright, and peppery, with a stunning, cherry stone theme. A new wine, 2023 South Bank Vineyard Pinot Noir (another preview), is silky, luminous, red apple-skin and plum-skin-soaked, with a plush palate and an incredible finish. These two Pinots alone will set the world alight later this year!
But my headliner is a micro-production Chardy, and it is one of Sergio’s finest wines to date. It is creamily textured, mineral-drenched, mountain-stream cool and yet formal, and unlike any historical Black Book Chardonnay. Preceding wines have always had a devil-may-care feel about them, but this is a ‘white tie’ Chardonnay. It is impossibly calm, sitting at the back of the palate, holding court with an unwavering gaze and monastic composure.
Vagabond, Solena Batch 004, England
£35.00
www.vagabondwines.co.uk
I tasted no fewer than ten new wines with winemaker Jose Quintana at the new winery in December, and they were all fascinating.
The best seven or eight wines were truly spectacular, and this makes Vagabond’s collection up there with the finest in the land.
While none of these were made at the new site, given that they only opened the doors a week or so before I visited, there is no doubt that this winery will give Jose the tools, equipment, and ergonomics to drive this brand to even higher levels of excitement.
Jose is a rare talent in our vinous firmament, and he is brutally honest, too, going so far as to explain what he thinks he can tweak in every wine in his portfolio to enable these wines to soar. And it all made sense, too!
That said, the work done since his predecessor left has been astonishing, with much of the funkiness left on the roadside while the wines engender more brightness, focus and identity. I can, hand on heart, state that every one of the 2024 vintage Vagabond wines is a winner, but there is a multi-vintage creation here that stole the show!
This ‘Sunny Solera’, or Solena, was started in 2018. I loved the previous incarnations of this wine, most recently writing up Batch 003 on this very page in November 2024. This new Batch 004 is even more sublime.
Made from a perpetual solera consisting of flor-influenced Ortega from 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, and 2024, each new vintage contributes approximately two thirds of the ‘new wine’, and 821 bottles of this batch were bottled for our delectation.
Instead of the flor notes sitting atop this wine, like in a sherry, Batch 004 achieves the near-impossible by sprinkling these teasingly dry and oft-challenging molecules throughout the flavour. This lessens the impact at the front of the palate and prolongs the finish by time zones, not seconds!
Smoky, musky, Nordic, expansive, and incredible, this is a film noir of a wine. Every emotion is covered, and an anthemic halo of flavour memory builds here, resulting in a flavour unlike any other on earth.
2024 LDN CRU, Pinot Noir Précoce
£25.00
www.londoncru.co.uk
There is a transcendency on the nose of this PNP (Plug ‘n’ Play or Pinot Noir Précoce, you decide) that defies the senses.
I will never forget the great James Rogers (RIP), who still possessed the greatest instinctive wine palate I have ever met, saying to me, “If it’s not on the nose, you will never find it on the palate”. He was right, and even judicious ageing or careful decanting will never coax a terminally dull or mute wine out of its shell.
Along with “Balance is born”, this rule of wine has stuck with me every day, and, therefore, when a wine possesses a perfume like this one, you sit bolt upright and pay forensic attention to every molecule of the experience.
And LDN CRU has form with this effortlessly enchanting red grape. The 2022 vintage was a cracker and, even as far back as the 2018 vintage, a Pinot Rosé showed magically aromatic purity. Winemaker Alex Hurley’s velvet touch coaxes out wistful, fairytale notes from his Pinot skins, and a laid-back, semi-carbonic fermentation is followed by a beyond-relaxed élévage in 12% neutral French oak and 88% concrete tanks. The result is one of the most resonant red wines imaginable, with an 11.5% alcohol chassis and a finish that rolls on for minutes. But, ooh, that nose…
