CROUCH VALLEY PINOT NOIR 2022

- Released to email subscribers on 24th October 2025 -

To quote Bob Dylan, it's been a slow train comin' but we have finally arrived... in Essex. More specifically, Mason's Point Vineyard in the Crouch Valley – one of the country’s warmest and driest terroirs, and arguably the best region in which to make still wines in England.
 
Planted on London blue clay (also known as “smectite,” which can be found in Pomerol on the Right Bank of Bordeaux), Mason's Point was recommended to us by the talented viticulturist Duncan McNeill, a Yorkshireman who learnt his trade in New Zealand before pioneering high quality grape-growing in the Crouch Valley.
 
The exceptional 2022 vintage saw record-breaking temperatures, which resulted in quite literally the ripest Pinot Noir we’ve seen in two decades of winemaking in England. Fermented at our winery in Sussex, it spent 14 months in new oak barrels, 10 months in tank, and a further 12 months on cork before release.
 
The result of our first foray into red winemaking – we're extremely proud to say – is probably quite unlike any other English red wine you will have tasted: a deeply saturated, purple-black colour, this is a Pinot Noir of structure and power and, at the same time, elegance and nuance.
 
Fragrant and juicy, its damson and plum character is layered with an array of spicy, smoky notes and veiled by fine-grained, velvety tannins. While already drinking beautifully, it will certainly age well over the next decade and then some.

Just 500 bottles available.