The The Vineyards of Britain: Cellar Door Adventures with the Best of Britain's Wines

By Ed Dallimore

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• Language: English
• Publisher: Fairlight Books
• Release date: Jun 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781914148125

Book preview

THE THAMES VALLEY AND CHILTERNS

FAIRMILE, HENLEY-ON-THAMES

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HARROW & HOPE

@HARROWHOPE

Marlow Winery, Pump Lane North, Marlow, SL7 3RD

https://harrowandhope.com

What: Tastings, cellar door sales and tours

Recommended wines: The lot

‘It’s reight gud’, says the sign above the bar in the tasting room at Harrow & Hope. A bit of Yorkshire in Marlow, at the purveyors of what is possibly England’s most sleek range of sparkling wines. Crafted by Henry Laithwaite, they are inspired by the Grower Champagnes and made with skills honed in Australia and Bordeaux, imbued with probably the truest sense of a life in wine that you could come across.

Son of Barbara and Tony Laithwaite, Henry was in the Grand Cru vineyards of France before he was out of nappies, accompanying his parents on their buying trips sourcing wines for what is probably Britain’s most successful wine merchant, Laithwaites. Following that he has harvested in the Ardèche in France and made wine in McLaren Vale, South Australia. Under the family merchants’ Bordeaux label, Château Verniotte, his career in site-expressive reds continued, as did his passion for the work in the vineyard, often arriving in Bordeaux a few weeks before harvest and feeling as though he was missing out on a huge part of the process.

The competition between the Grand Marque – or major label – Champagne houses and the resulting challenge of wine marketing rather than winemaking, combined with their sourcing of fruit from a multitude of different sites to hit volume, didn’t exactly culminate in attracting Henry to sparkling wine. That was until he was inspired by the lesser-known Grower Champagnes. This smaller scale and fewer sites approach aligned perfectly with his desire to make wines that are ultimately a reflection of place.

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Henry Laithwaite hard at work on the bottling line

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Tanks, barrels and bottles of superb sparkling

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Henry inside the winery at Harrow & Hope

Moving back home with a young family in mind, the hunt was on for the perfect site to do so. His partner Kaye’s hometown of Sheffield was always likely to be second to the unique, rolling hills of flint and chalk in the Thames Valley Chilterns. The retreating Thames, which flowed through this site half a million years ago, left a steep-sloped topsoil of flint and gravel in orange clay over chalk. As a lover of the ocean who grew up not far from here, I can tell you it’s about as far away from the sea as you can get in Britain. But this brings warmer summer days and cooler nights, providing great ripening potential while, crucially for quality sparkling wine, maintaining acidity.

In 2010 about 80% of the vineyard was planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with the balance of what is now 6.5 hectares planted to Meunier. The old tractor shed was turned into a tasting room, with the impressive winery just a few yards away. As much as I like old tractors, it’s great that the shed now has a bar, because a visit to Harrow & Hope without a tasting is like going to an Ottolenghi restaurant and just looking at the kitchen.

I’m not sure there’s a more precise range in all of Britain than here; it’s a struggle to think of a more concise portfolio in any of my wine travels or tastings of an individual producer, anywhere, ever. There are four stunning wines, all sparkling. The non-vintage, a blend of the three grapes according to the planting percentages, a single vintage, 100% Chardonnay Blanc de Blancs, an ethereal Blanc de Noirs also from one harvest, and a vintage rosé.

It is incredible to see the depth and structure throughout the range, especially from relatively young vines. Signature characteristics are aided by up to 20% barrel-ageing for the non-vintage, which accentuates its wonderful texture and weight in the wines’ numbered series of releases. All elements across each wine are so brilliantly in sync with one another, from reserve wine addition, barrel maturation, to thirty-six months lees ageing – forty for the Blanc de Noirs – to dosage, acidity and best of all, supreme fruit. It’s as much a credit to the curator as it is truly a reflection of this magical site – one that James McLean, the vineyard manager at Wiston Estate, rates as the country’s best.

For me, the rosé embodies all that wine should. It’s a rosé drinker’s rosé, a sparkling fan’s rosé, a wine lover’s rosé – it’s as much a wine for good times in the garden with your mates as it is for drinking in a Michelin-starred restaurant with your partner. It’s easy-going and fruit-forward but full of complexity and interest. It’s a wine for everyone, which is what wine should be.

Of the four, the Blanc de Noirs is the wine to lie down and watch develop, if you can. It’s drinking well enough already to pick up back-to-back trophies for Britain’s best at the WineGB Awards in 2020 and 2021.

Having rescued vineyard dog Alfonse from the streets of Bergerac, Henry, Kaye and family established Harrow & Hope in the belief that the flint-laden slopes above Marlow would one day yield a sparkling wine to rival the world’s greatest. Well, that day is not only here, it has been realised several times, and as soon as there’s another release that day will come all over again. It’s better than reight gud.

WINDING WOOD

@WINDINGWOODVINEYARD

Orpenham Farm, Winding Wood, Hungerford, West Berkshire, RG17 9RJ

http://www.windingwoodvineyard.co.uk

What: Cellar door sales and tastings by appointment

Recommended wines: Classic Cuvée, Demi-Sec

Down the single-track lanes in between the hedgerows just outside Hungerford, you might stumble across the beautiful Orpenham Farm. This is quintessential English countryside, and on arrival it feels like you could be situated at some time during last hundred years, except for one major exception. Orpenham Farm is now the home of Winding Wood wines where a driveway dissects two premium plots of vines – as if transported directly from Burgundy: on the right, Pinot Noir; to the left, Chardonnay.

I’ve been lucky to meet many lovely people through my travels in the wine industry, and Christopher Cooke is right up there with the best of them. A former publisher who grazed sheep on this perfect patch of England, he decided in 2013 it might be more interesting to plant vines and make wine instead. A premonition I would strongly agree with.

Christopher’s is only one of two vineyards in Britain to employ a wire heating system throughout, protecting new budding fruit from potentially crop-destroying frost. When the thermostat reaches a pre-set temperature, it automatically heats the air around the vines to a cosy 20 degrees. More economical to run and considerably more relaxing to operate than getting up to light fires at 3am every cold April or May morning.

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Christopher Cooke at Winding Wood

Though potentially more challenging, working with the ever-changing environment has inspired them to organic conversion, striving for both the best fruit possible and the healthiest use of the land. Daniel Ham makes the wines at his Offbeat winery in Wiltshire. Formerly of Langham Estate in Dorset and partly motivated by Daniel, Christopher will make a leap of faith in attempts to make Winding Wood a fully biodynamic vineyard. These are exciting times, and Christopher’s passion and humility in putting his trust in Daniel and moving forward together is a really very tasty recipe for success.

The quality-first approach is equally evident in the vines and the resulting sleek range produced from their fruit. There are just two wines, both made with the same classic method, a slightly Chardonnay-dominant blend that sees three years’ ageing in bottle on their yeast ‘lees’: Classic Cuvée and Demi-Sec – the latter meaning half dry, suggesting a dosage of between 33 and 50 grams of sugar per litre, according to Champagne production laws.

The Classic Cuvée is vintage-dependent, but generally bottled around 2 grams per litre, whereas the Demi might see up to 40. Both are great examples in variation and, though ultimately they are the same wine, one addition made to the latter results in a completely different taste. Demi-Secs are so underrated, and provide versatile food-matching potential – fantastic with fruit-tarts traditionally, or as entrée companions to butter-sauce scallops or burrata.

It’s easy to imagine more vines in the adjacent sun-drenched slopes, so the further potential for rosés and Blanc de Noirs is proving quite tempting. But for now, with already 3000 vines over two plots, hand-tending is more manageable and the transition to bio-dynamics will be slightly more straightforward.

As average annual production goes, 3000 bottles is relatively minimal, but it’s of premium quality – most of which is pre-sold before vintage release. Winding Wood are also offering a very limited membership scheme, providing exclusive access to dinners, events and tastings in the stunning vine-side eighteenth-century timber barn.

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Working wine dog Ludo

Robert’s dogs Bolly and Tatty, named after favourite Champagne houses, are the forebears to current wine dog, working cocker Ludo, who seems as happy and content as Christopher. It’s easy to see why, his naming perhaps broke with the tradition, but you can’t name your dog after your own vineyard now, can you?

DAWS HILL

@DAWSHILLVINEYARD

Town End Road, Radnage, High Wycombe, HP14 4DY

https://dawshillvineyard.co.uk

What: Vineyard and winery tours, events, cellar door sales

Recommended wines: Sparkling White, Sparkling Rosé

When you first meet someone and they’re really quite hungover, I always think it’s a pretty reassuring sign: they’re one of us. Still, it was just after 3pm on a Tuesday when I met Holly. The Tuesday after the Monday that pubs reopened in England following months of lockdown in 2021.

‘Were you booked in for the lunch or evening session?’ I asked. ‘Both,’ was her reply. Brilliant.

Driving down the network of tracks that lead to Daws Hill Vineyard, I was particularly struck by the steep slopes on either side. I wonder how long it will be until all these south-facing chalk slopes are predominantly vine-heavy.

There is a stunning tree-lined, gradually increasing incline to the top of the vineyard, home to five rows of Pinot Noir followed by Pinot Noir Précoce. Chardonnay is planted in the adjoining paddock. Bollinger have a vineyard called La Côte aux Enfants – the Children’s Hillside – that was considered too steep for the backs of fully grown adults to pick fruit on, so they employed kids instead. Youthful exuberance would come in very handy picking the fruit from the steepest part of the Daws Hill vineyard, but that slope is a great benefit, maximising sun exposure and greater ripening potential. Air flows down slopes, cooling fruit during summer and reducing disease and the threat from spring frosts. Air frost still descended in 2020, however, costing Daws Hill 90% of that season’s crop.

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Rack full of great booze

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Rosé sampling in the former stables-turned-winery

Returning home from Ibiza, Holly pretty much learnt winemaking from scratch, taking over the winery from her father in 2016. Henry, winemaker at Harrow & Hope, has helped out too – Holly’s father helped Henry plant his now celebrated vineyard, so the support goes both ways. There’s even some Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot in the ground, though given this is Bucks rather than Bordeaux, they’re yet to yield anything resembling ripe fruit.

Everything is done on-site, by hand, from picking the two-paddock plots’ grapes to classic-method bottle-fermentation in the converted stable’s winery. Riddling racks hold the ageing wines from previous vintages and disgorging, corking and labelling is all done here, too, just a metre or so from the tanks that, fortunately from a tasting point of view, come with a tap at the bottom.

There’s a stunning synergy throughout the range, full of bright and precise fruit. The core range are a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, all aged for a minimum of four years before release, which is a year longer than is required for vintage Champagne. A tasty point of difference is in the sparkling Auxerrois, which at just 10% volume and with an uplift of residual sugar, is fresh and easy, and makes an awesome little breakfast wine. Or maybe a great option as a hungover palate refresher before today’s pub booking. It is Tuesday, after all.

ALDER RIDGE VINEYARD

@ALDERRIDGE

Cobbs farm, Bath Road, Hungerford, West Berkshire, RG17 0SP

https://www.alderridge.co.uk

What: Cellar door sales, tasting, shop, café and tours

Recommended wines: Blanc de Noirs, Classic Cuvée, Special Cuvée

Tom and the team at Alder Ridge planted Pinot Noir and Chardonnay on this flint-topped band of chalk just outside Hungerford in 2011. It raised some eyebrows when fruit picked only two years later became their first release. I say ‘only’, because wine knowledge taught in the boardrooms of large merchants says you must wait at least three years from planting before any worthy crop can be produced. That very wine won best Blanc de Noirs at The Champagne and Sparkling Wine World Championships in 2017.

Moving to more regenerative methods in terms of land use was partly the motivation of dialling back the soft fruit side of the farm. With 8 acres currently under vine, on a 60-acre property that is pretty much the same soil mix throughout, there’s huge potential for an increase in production, but volume is certainly not the goal.

Even at 120 metres above sea level, spring frost – as late as mid-May in 2020 – is a major threat to new season fruit and hastened the installation of a frost-prevention system. Water can be drawn off the on-site reservoir and sprayed over the vines when necessary, covering their buds with a protective film that stops that potentially crop-destroying frost from settling.

Quality fruit, of course, is only half the battle when it comes to producing brilliant wine. Made by champion winemaker Emma Rice, it’s in the winery at Hattingley where the premium philosophy is really exemplified. It’s a minimum seven years’ bottle ageing for the top two wines, and generally a low 2 or 3 grams per litre dosage, keeping the focus on pristine fruit. This extended lees-time softens natural acidity, adds roundness and amazing complexity through the interaction between wine, yeast and good old time. It is an incredibly long process, economically speaking, but the desire at Alder Ridge is for the wines to be released as the best possible showcase of fruit and the season in which it grew.

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Tom pouring the good stuff

The portfolio of the three premium sparkling wines all drink amazingly young and fresh for their age. The Blanc de Noirs carries a richness you would expect, being 100% Pinot Noir – another good reason for that extended ageing. Classic Cuvée is exactly that in make-up, ever so slightly dominant in Chardonnay over Pinot Noir. Marrying that crunchy rich Pinot with riper and creamy Chardonnay brings an additional super-long finish.

The latest addition to the range is the Special Cuvée, which adds Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir Précoce to Pinot Noir and a balance of around 50% Chardonnay. Still six years on-lees for this entry-level non-vintage wine, it’s the most accessible of the three, benefitting from a more fruit-forward style. As entry-level, drink-tonight options go, this is about as premium as it gets, which is in keeping with every other facet of Alder Ridge.

There’s enough wine tucked away from a couple of later vintages that could be released now, but, as Tom says, it’s getting better with time – so what’s the rush?

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The vineyard at Alder Ridge, with the new water-spraying frost-repellent system

ALL ANGELS

@ALLANGELSVINEYARD

Church Farm, Enborne, Newbury, West Berkshire, RG20 0HD

https://www.allangels.com

What: Cellar door sales, tours and tastings, invitation lunches and dinners

Recommended wines: Sparkling Rosé, Classic Cuvée

More has happened in the vineyards of Britain over the last decade than the last 1000 years combined. This means, though, that we have a relatively young wine industry that is surrounded by centuries of fascinating history. Planted next to the twelfth-century parish church of St Michael and All Angels, Mark Darley’s Enborne vineyard is about as fine an example of this contrast as I’ve seen. Dog Company, 101st American Airborne Division were stationed here prior to the D-Day landings, and this site was also home to a Roundhead encampment during the first battle of Newbury in 1643. On a clear day you can see five counties from Combe Gibbet, south-west of the vineyard – a spot chosen so that the fate of those hanging there would act as a very visible deterrent.

The gently sloping, south-facing sandy loam site is an excellent base for the 2010 plantings. The early ripening Rondo was a good choice at 220 metres above sea level, but such has been the temperature increase that early bud bursting of new season fruit leaves it ever more susceptible to spring frosts. It’s blended with Pinot Gris to produce a vibrant sparkling rosé that’s deep in colour, with the Gris bringing a lifted brightness of ripe fruit.

Classic Cuvée, Mark’s go-to wine, is an appropriately traditional blend of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier, with just a touch of Pinot Gris. Three years on lees accentuates the rich, creamy style, though not at all masking the elegant English garden fruit shining through. With a healthy chunk seeing extended lees ageing for late release, All Angels are premium producers only going in one – extremely tasty – direction.

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The ‘Church Block’ vineyard beside the twelfth-century parish church of St Michael and All Angels

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Spring sunshine on the vines at Enborne Vineyard

Tucked away behind the main house and tasting room sits the very special ‘Church Block’. Barely an acre in size and planted exclusively to Chardonnay, almost as an extension to the church grounds, the adjacent vineyard will provide All Angels’s first Prestige Cuvée. From only the best vintages, and with a minimum 10 years’ lees-ageing, this Blanc de Blancs might yield 500 bottles annually. We probably won’t see the first edition until the early 2030s, but when I eventually taste it, I’ll remember walking into that small vineyard for the first time and being as excited about wine as any time prior.

Just when you think it’s getting a bit serious, All Angels 340, referencing the number of bottles produced, adds some left-field variation. Mark says the Sparkling Rondo is a bit of fun, winemaker Emma Rice calls it alcoholic Ribena. Maybe not for everyone, but what wine is? Big, bright, blackcurrant fruit, it just sort of sits on the palate like a Bloody Mary – so much so it almost reminds me of hangovers and great nights out – and I think that’s why I like it.

I can’t imagine many other producers creating something like the 340, and similarly I can think of few other regions that could curate the kind of quality as the Classic Cuvée, or rosé, and where else can combine this kind of history? The future is as bright here as anywhere else, and as for the Church Block Blanc de Blancs, I’ll see you in 2032 for the pre-release tasting.

CHAFOR WINE ESTATE

@CHAFORWINE

High Hedges Vineyard, Preston Bissett Road, Gawcott, Buckinghamshire, MK18 4HT

https://www.chafor.co.uk

What: Cellar door sales, tours, tastings and bar

Recommended wines: Elegance, Chardonnay, Classic Cuvée, Sparkling Rosé

In 2009, Tim Chafor followed a gut instinct that said there was a massive opportunity for making wine in this part of Buckinghamshire, and so left a family farm and IT background and set up a vineyard in Gawcott.

Chafor Estate sits on what you would call a mega-mix of soil type: Jurassic limestone, flint, pebble – part-marble, part-sand, with nuggets of chalk all bundled together on top of more chalk. In among all that there’s a great mix of heat retention and free draining potential, yet there’s moisture retained when required, and, as a result of this combination, there is an opportunity to create wines unique to this very place.

Tim is running four businesses here: grape growing, winemaking, sales and events – the vineyard bar caters for a couple hundred punters to come and enjoy drinking the vineyard’s produce right next to the vines that grew it, as well as offering private tours and tastings.

With classic-method sparkling wine in mind, in the ground initially went Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay. Then 2018 came along and the fruit ripened so well that still versions of the first and last of these were possible.

Madeleine Angevine and Pinot Gris make up two further still white varietals, blended together to the tune of about 80/20 under the self-explanatory ‘Elegance’ label. Chafor’s signature in the still department is fundamentally their Bacchus, which is planted across two sites, both very much in the aromatic spectrum – the only real problem is in getting your hands on