After the bold, broad, and almost brutish 2018 release, the 2019 is cut from a different cloth. A cooler and less abundant year suited the Pinot considerably better than the Chardonnay. 80% of this wine is fermented using natural wild yeast in a selection of different-sized oak barrels. It certainly has that signature Pinot intensity but is wrapped in an elegant and refined structure that is a hallmark of 2019. For those who remember 2015, this is very similar in structure and a wine that continues to develop a singular identity that makes it stand out from the crowd, no doubt our most complex wine to date.
Blend: 100% Pinot Noir
Fermentation: 80% Barrel Fermentation
Lees Ageing: 36 months
Total Acidity: 7.6 g/l
Residual Sugar: 5.6 g/l
95/100 The Real Review
Pale gold, this pure pinot noir is delightfully bright and fresh in aroma with a hint of vanilla oak behind red berry fruit; bottled in June 2020 and disgorged after three years, there’s an expansive rich mousse of bubbles with background vanilla oak and behind the oak and attractive stone fruit flavours; a tongue-caressing, complex fizz whose concentrated, strawberry and raspberry flavours are neatly contained in a fine-tuned framework of bright acidity for a satisfyingly refreshing finish
94/100 Jamie Goode
Fine, fresh and chiselled with lovely fruit: pear, cherry and citrus with nice acidity. Lovely purity here, showing amazing fruit.
93/100 Vinous
The 2019 Brut Blanc de Noirs, a pure Buckinghamshire-grown Pinot Noir, was fermented in 500-liter barrels and spent three years on lees. An initial touch of kefir dissipates to reveal subtle creaminess and smoke. The poised palate features a fine gentle mousse, showcasing toasted hazelnut notes of oak while remaining pristinely juicy with tart red apple. Smokiness clings to the red apple purity and tartness, lending sonority to the wine, which finishes clean-cut and pure. Lovely! Disgorged: June 2023.
17.5/20 Tamlyn Currin jancisrobinson.com
Glittering minerality, a wine of shards. A wine that makes you look up, expecting stalactites, something cold, powerful and still, and instead finding something quite other – a gold-light-bathed cathedral. There is nothing austere about this wine, despite its buttressed, cavernous power. It’s rich to the brink of opulence, but holds the line. It is floodlit with fruit and flavour of quince, pâté brisée, Jamaican tangelo, loquat, and this gorgeous tide-line of saltiness left behind as it ebbs on the finish. And the bubbles like the finest of tight-work lace. Like their BdB, conceivably underpriced.
