I covered a comprehensive haul of English wines on my website for English Wine Week, including a load I found at the London Wine Fair in May. Re-reading this piece, I noticed a fascinating pattern.
There were a number of pairs of wines, which in taste terms, at least, represented two sides of the same coin, or mirror image flavours, if you like. Aside from the pleasing symmetry of these wines, there is an attractive commercial consideration that also greatly appeals to my business mind.
If you are planning to make a juicy red Pinot Noir, why not run off some saignée to make a sibling rosé? If your white wine has strong brand recognition, why not add a rosé to the range, using the same nomenclature? It is likely you will sell both wines to the same customer if you have managed to build brand loyalty. And if you want to make yin-yang wines to be bought as a pair, do so in small quantities to create rarity and desirability.
This month, I have found three such pairs where each and every wine is a cracker, and they really ought to be considered a duo rather than a single SKU purchase. Congrats to these three and to all others who have employed this clever trick. I am certain it will pay off.
There is one final codicil to this introduction and that is the wines featured are almost all brand new releases, so in addition to endeavouring to publish scoop tasting notes, which you know I love, some of the wines might sneak onto the shelves towards the end of August, as opposed to at the beginning, so they will be relevant during this magazine’s shelf life, but perhaps not all of them on day one!
2025 Heppington Estate, Pinot Noir Rosé
£19.00
www.lowerhardresfarmshop.co.uk
www.macknade.com
£102 for 6 bottles or £17.00 each www.heppingtonvvineyard.co.uk
I tasted the 2024 vintage of this blushingly enticing rosé at the London Wine Fair, and it turns out that it has already sold out!
So, the 2025 has been rushed out of its changing room, rewarded with one of the most beautiful labels in the kingdom, and brought out onto the shelf to face the cameras earlier than expected. The result is a hauntingly pretty perfume followed by a tense and scouringly clean palate.
It is a foodie proposition and thank goodness I had some fresh prawns to hand because it meant I could give this epic rosé a genuinely sumptuous workout, which it passed with flying colours.
I assume its very pale hue is a result of it being bled off its red wine counterpart. The clever folk at Heppington make a stunning, seamless Pinot Noir, too, which does appear to benefit from an extra degree of concentration!
2024 Heppington Pinot Noir
£22.75, reduced to £113 for 6 bottles, or £18.83 each www.heppingtonvvineyard.co.uk
2024 Heppington Pinot Noir carries the same perfume and trademark silkiness as its rosé partner, only with a more ravishingly dense and juicy palate. This is definitely a winery to pay close attention to because these two wines are shockingly good value, too!
2022 Black Chalk, Paragon
£65.00, reduced to £60.00 www.reservewines.co.uk
£65.00
£68.95, reduced to £62.95 each by the case www.leaandsandeman.co.uk
Paragon ’22 is one of the most beautiful wines to emerge from the Black Chalk cellar. This 100% Chardonnay is light, airy, and amazingly resonant, with a magical touch that permeates the senses and never lets go.
It manages to possess a degree of elegance and freshness that defies belief, and with only 2,717 bottles made, it is born into collectors’ item territory from the off.
Funnily enough, when I tasted it for the first time, I failed to close the bottle properly, so when I went back for another look a couple of days later, the bubbles had dropped out, and the base wine was left. And it is clear when you sip it without fizz that this is a wine of uncommon class and sophistication. And then you realise its alter ego is every bit as enticing!
2022 Black Chalk Inversion
£65.00, reduced to £60.00 www.reservewines.co.uk
£65.00 www.blackchalkwine.co.uk
£64.00 www.hedonism.co.uk
£68.95, reduced to £62.95 each by the case www.leaandsandeman.co.uk
2022 Black Chalk Inversion is another bafflingly complex and toothsome wine! This time, the constituent parts are all red, 73% Pinot Noir and 27% Pinot Meunier. It manages to pull off the same trick as its sibling, but with awesome sleight of hand, reversing the mood with pink and red fruit notes, thrilling spices, and brazen acidity.
The technical sheet mentions 97.5% steel fermentation, presumably meaning 2.5% woodwork. Where the Chardonnay utilises old foudres to bring a degree of silkiness and composure, this wine comes at you bristling with energy and momentum! Like its sibling, it has no malo, no fining, and spends 32 months on its lees. The label mentions that the production is a little more rarefied, too: 2682 bottles. Or rather, make that 2681!
2025 Lyme Bay, Shoreline
£18.99 www.lymebaywinery.co.uk
I have been a long-term fan of Shoreline, and I still think this wine has one of the most evocative and dreamy names around.
The 2025 vintage, which is brand new on the shelves, is made from Reichensteiner, Solaris, Pinot Blanc, Bacchus, and Sauvignon Blanc, sourced from the Crouch Valley Vineyard, Great Whitmans, Tudwick Hall Vineyard, and Crows Lane Estate Vineyard.
It is very carefully assembled, sees only stainless steel, and, with 11% alcohol, is one of the most summery and mesmerising wines on the market. I happen to think this is one of the finest wines made by Lyme Bay, and I take my hat off to winemaker Clem Yates MW, who has blended Shoreline into a position of perfect symmetry and succulence.
Shoreline (white) shows delicate orchard notes over a slinky, ever-changing stone-fruit and citrus palate, and I love it. So, I was even more excited to learn that Clem has made an incredible 2025 Lyme Bay Shoreline Rosé. This is a new wine to me, made from Bacchus and Pinot Noir. For this reason alone, it is an outlier and stunningly unique, and alongside a killer price, the fruit is packed with pomegranate and cherry tones that will not fail to entrance your senses. It is as modern a rosé as we have ever seen on our shore(line)s.
2025 Lyme Bay Shoreline Rosé
£18.99 www.lymebaywinery.co.uk
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