My last of these – this wine still has legs though. Charlie Holland’s first vintage in Kent. The best English 2013s have taken some time to emerge fully, but when they do they can be excellent. It was a very late harvest, with low sugars and high acids. But those that got there with ripeness made some fine. precisely-styled wines.

2015 Base. 1/3rd each Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Disgorged July 2017. 

This is Wiston’s entry level wine, of which the the 2014 base was very solid. It is all stainless steel and includes some bought-in fruit, unlike the vintage cuvées. The 2015 feels more open in style than I remember the 2014. Some baked red apple and a nut-oil oxidative streak behind behind floral honey and orange. A slightly unyielding nature despite some softening maturity. Is this as fresh as the 2014 base? 15

Find this wine on wine-searcher

100% Pinot Noir. No MLF. 4.5yrs on lees, 1 yr on cork.

Creamy, alluring apple blossom and fresh raspberry/blackberry aromas, cinnamon-spiced apple and an engaging autolytic richness. Some savoury touches here, which I like –  creamed mushroom and nut butter. Clarity, purity and length on the palate, although the mousse needs to settle a bit with further time. There are little nuances here –  honey, dried lime, anise. So complex and engaging. Dosage hits a little front-end perhaps but bodes very well for the future. Wonderful. 17.5

Buy from Fox & Fox

All steel. Original chardonnay vines near the winery. Full MLF, 112 months on lees. Disgorged November 19.

Lovely gunpowder reductive character which threads right through the whole wine beautifully. Very fine candied grapefruit on toast presented with tremendous internal freshness. Subtleties of white pepper, white flowers (lily/bergamot?), very faint truffle honey even. What a gorgeous set of flavours! Some lemon tart richness starting to build, but it is embryonic. Refinement in texture and a truly energetic finish in evidence. Top tier, and will be very long-lived. 18

Buy from Ridgeview

All Chardonnay from the original vineyards at Ridgeview.  Just 11 months on lees (!) .2015, 16 and 17 vintages. 3 g/l dosage. 

Fresh lemony oak, white butter, the wood is fairly bold but of high quality with nutmeg/yellow spice and a nice sweet dill/fennel note. The palate is harmonious, with some real finesse to the texture inside the slightly grippy, but fresh oak. The incisive fruit still shines, with the acidity just in check. Feels very youthful, but stylish and moreish. 16.5

£75 direct from Ridgeview

 55% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir and 20% Pinot Meunier. All steel, c.3 years on lees.

45% Pinot Noir, 47% Pinot Meunier, 8% Chardonnay made in-house at this low-lying site in East Sussex, just across the county border from Gusbourne in Kent.

Quite distinctive in style this, cool and slightly green with elderflower and cowslip mingling with cox apple and light honey. Some deliberate savoury oxidative characters add subtle interest and seem to sit well with the wild, lithe style of this cuvée. I think this has lost a little freshness since tasted at the end of 2019. 15

100% Pinot Noir from the 2016 vintage, with 32 g/l dosage.

As soon as Charlie from @coolhurstvineyards told me they were doing this wine I thought ‘yes’! Their dry wines have offered up such fresh, silky and refined expressions of English Pinot that all the extra dosage does is add a natural, balanced fruit sweetness.

Some classic fresh red fruits as you’d expect, but also ripe red apples, clementine and white peach, a twist of pepper and gingerbread, delicate white rose and meringue. There’s some crabapple jelly, but not a hint of anything wild or herbaceous. No rough edges, just pure delicacy from great fruit and sensitive winemaking ( Ulrich Hoffmann at @hoffmannandrathbone .)

An addictive little redcurrant pip twist pops up on the finish, joining the polished acidity in maintaining proper tension and length, too. This is the first Demi-Sec to properly grab me from the UK. Hats off! 17

Simpsons didn’t use as much inert pressing for the 2017 vintage of the Chalklands Classic Cuvée as was used in 2016, and Charles explains that the resulting wine has a more oxidative style.* The 2017, composed of 60% Pinot Noir and 40% Chardonnay fermented in steel and aged on lees for 20 months, pours a notably golden hue, with an inviting vein of almond and set honey running through farm-shop apple juice (the posh stuff). It wears a light and bright texture beneath this open stance, with some delicacy and a fine, appetising almond-skin substance on the close, unimpeded by difficult acidity or dosage – a sign of good fruit in England.

The oxidative surface here speaks of more than just pressing, to me – this is a wine that has been deliberately given a shot of maturity beyond its years. It could really land with anyone wanting a change from the frank, LED-bright styles we sometimes get at entry level. 16