The most memorable wines are made by those who are prepared to make great efforts, have a whole-hearted commitment to their cause, draw on inspiration from their colleagues and friends and who don’t shirk from making strong and well-founded leadership decisions. We are good at these disciplines in the UK, and I believe this is why we are forging forward at a great rate of knots with the quality and breadth of choice of our very best wines.
However, this is not new news. I am tired of reading in the national press that England is finally making some decent wines. These articles are written by the same people who say that nowadays Australia is making decent Chardonnay. These journalists think Verdicchio is a wine to watch in 2025 and that Dolcetto is Italy’s, and Mencía is Spain’s newfound answer to Beaujolais. This inane, vinous fluff is peddled and then consumed as news. It is insulting!
Australia has been producing cool-climate, French oak-matured, elegant and layered Chardonnays since the 1980s. The Italians and Spanish have been at it for a lot longer than that, and elite English wines have been around for my entire wine life.
At first, in each of these categories, and in others besides, the examples of top-flight, pioneering, visionary wines were thin on the ground. But leaders lead, and others follow, and in the wine world, the grape vine is quick to spread the news about deliciousness! When a new wine breaks the mould and captures the imagination, it inevitably spawns success.
I have found it a doddle to come up with three wines a month for this excellent magazine for 95 consecutive months. It is fake news that England has suddenly started to make great wine, and that the French, and others, are looking to our shores for climate security and surefire success. The world’s eyes have been on us for years, and most informed wine lovers know this already.
I awarded my first perfect score to an English wine on this very page – over five years ago! 2018 Oxney Organic Chardonnay was outstanding, and it is still outstanding today. I know because I tasted it the other day. We have long made world-class wines. We just make more of them today than ever. Ignore the fake news. Follow the pioneers, work hard and then harder still, and turn a blind eye to those who want to make us look like we have only just found our feet.
This country is the most informed in the world regarding fine wine. We have the most sophisticated buyers and retailers on earth, and we also have some of the most talented winemakers, too, as well as exceptional terroir scattered through our land. We know this, we have been doing it for decades, and we don’t need to be told by ignorant hacks that we are new to this game and that overseas investment is, suddenly, proof of this concept. Foreigners are coming here because we are masterful manufacturers with an aeons-long history of embracing luxury and crafting stunning handmade creations. This month, I have found three newly released wines that might be scoops, but they are not new news!
NV Exton Park, Reserve Blend Demi Sec, Hampshire
£40.00
Made from 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay, this wine boasts a discreet 35 g/L dosage and is aged for four years on its lees.
Based on the beautiful Exton Park RB32, only 1,000 bottles have been produced, so get in very quickly indeed! Winemaker Corinne Seely has an innate understanding of exquisite balance, and she has, in one fell swoop, made our country’s finest off-dry sparkler.
This is not news. We have a long history of thrilling demi-secs in the UK. This wine is undoubtedly significant for Exton Park, as it is the first of its kind to be made here. It is sensational, but they already make sensational wines. Again, not news. What it is, however, is an evolutionary step for this brand, building on its peerless standards by crafting a wine with generosity, silkiness, and more Sec than Demi. It is also stunningly refreshing, balancing notes of apple and pear skin against a glossy sheen of lip-smacking, cut-silk freshness.
2023 Great Wheatley Vineyard, House on the Hill Chardonnay, Essex
£38.00
Arriviste wine commentators think that still white wines made from the Chardonnay grape are a newfound skill in this country – tell that to Gusbourne, Simpsons, Riverview, Greyfriars, Black Chalk, Hidden Spring, Bride Valley, Chapel Down, Whitewolfe, Black Book, and, of course, Oxney, among many others.
This is also not Great Wheatley’s first rodeo in this magazine; this happened a year ago. So, this is not fake news, again. This wine, however, is a beautiful addition to this outfit’s portfolio.
Released this month, it is made from Chardonnay grown on the Crouch Valley Peninsula, and I had the opportunity to taste it directly after wading through a swamp of 2023 vintage Mâconnais wines.
With an alcohol level one whole percentage point lower than the lowest French wine, and with more crystalline fruit and sensitive oak handling, this is a stellar creation, made by Ben Smith (who ushered the 2018 Oxney Chardy into its bottle), so even its winemaker is not a revelation.
This fabulous wine is the coming together of wise owners, superb winemaking and great fruit, and none of this is a surprise. It is simply a thrilling piece of serendipity, and you ought to enjoy it in the same way you enjoy treating yourself to any and every one of your favourite indulgences. Nothing new there: as you were.
2024 Winbirri Vineyard, Bacchus, Norfolk
£61.50, per three bottles or £114.00, per six bottles www.winbirri.com
Winemaker Lee Dyer describes Bacchus as the jewel in his crown, and Winbirri is a leading light with this grape. This is such old news it is barely worth mentioning, but forgive me this indulgence, because it makes me smile.
I have been writing up Lee’s wines for nigh on a decade, and his Bacchus won the award for Best Single Varietal White Wine in the World at the 2017 Decanter World Wine Awards. It is, therefore, self-evident that this new release is a stunner. I am sure you are not surprised; no one should be.
The reason for its inclusion in this column is that it is leagues ahead of the quality of the aforementioned world-conquering wine, because Lee didn’t sit on his laurels all those years ago. A pioneer, yes, but a grafter, too, and this is why the 2024 vintage of his beloved Bacchus is epically balanced, less urgent and more cultured than a boatload of Savvie Bs, and it not only has a stunning beginning and an impressive end, but a glorious middle, too.
Bacchus often is missing in action on the mid-palate, having expended its finite energies on perfume and finish. This one is sensational throughout, billowing, caressing and enchanting as it goes! The only newsflash here is that it is business as usual at Winbirri, but that won’t make the front page, will it?
