SQUERRYES

The finest English bubbly shouldn’t be drunk too early and benefits from bottle age. This is a well-layered, creamy Champagne-style vintage sparkling wine with gentle indications of baked apple, plump peach and brioche, finishing dry with a citrus kick, to keep things joyful.

Taste the complexity that comes with 48 months on the lees of the second fermentation in the bottle, it’s exhilarating. Racy across the textural palate thanks to the fresh acidity, which keeps this lively and the finish long. Line and length are insistent, assuring a bright future if cellared well. Made by Henners’ head winemaker Colette O’Leary from fruit grown on a 2,500 acre, nearly 300-year-old working estate in Westerham that eight generations of the Warde family (whose family motto is ‘Licet Esse Beatis’: ‘it is permitted to be joyful’) have called home.

A joy to drink, it stands shoulder to shoulder in flavour terms with vintage offerings from familiar big-name Champagne houses on the other side of the Channel. You will be hypnotised by the effortless grace in this sparkling Kentish wine. I poured it for a wine group and everybody got out their phones to order some. 39% Chardonnay, 41% Pinot Noir, and 20% Pinot Meunier.

IN THE VINEYARD: It was a cool year with late bud burst with reasonable flowering giving average yields. July was warm with August to October cooler, giving a very late harvest, the latest ever in our history. We finished picking Chardonnay on the 10th November.

GRAPE VARIETY: 39% Chardonnay, 41% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier.
DOSAGE: 8.5g/litre
LEES AGEING: 48 months
DISGORGED: July 2020
MALOLACTIC: 100%

FERMENTATION: First in stainless steel tanks, second in bottle with champagne yeast. PROCESSING: Whole bunch pressed and naturally settled for 24 - 36 hours.

The 2015 vintage has a fine, persistent mousse with a fresh nose of ripe white peaches, honeysuckle and pink grapefruit with underlying creaminess. On the palate it is full and round with concentrated orchard fruit flavours and a crisp bite of green apple and citrus giving an ultra clean, taut finish with great length. A stylish and complex wine, delicious now but with a great future.