An English Burgundy!?

An English Burgundy!?

It's fair to say that whilst we've been making wine commercially for a few decades in England, the industry as a whole has only recently started to find its feet. We've been through the growing pains of the sweet Liebfraumilch inspired wines of the 70's and an attempt in the 1980's and 90's to produce wine from immature vines. We are finally at a point where we have settled into our own skins, know what we are good at, and are producing wines of consistently high quality. 

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It will come as no surprise to you to hear that Great Britain has a cool climate. In wine-making terms this is either a curse or a blessing. On the one hand, if the weather cannot be relied upon to consistently warm then you are unable to produce large amounts of commercially safe, fruity table wine. On the other hand many of the best wines in the world are made at lower temperatures (think Bordeaux, Burgundy, and Champagne) as it takes a longer time for grapes to ripen and the flavour enzymes mature to a greater degree.

Unfortunately, the margins between a great harvest and a complete disaster are very fine and in the case of Great Britain we've been just that little bit too cold to consistently produce quality wines, until now. The effects of climate change and the subsequent rise in temperature of the British Iles has led to a far more desirable landscape for wine production, especially in the realms of Champagne style sparkling and wines made from Burgundian varieties such as Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. The Guinevere from the renowned Gusbourne estate in Kent is an absolutely stunning lightly oaked Chardonnay, reminiscent of a top end Burgundy. It has all of the finesse and the trademark balance of its French counterparts and a pleasing lemony palate and finish.

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