Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée Edition 1

Taittinger’s chef de cave Alexandre Ponnavoy came to London to show their first English sparkling wine to various wine professionals. The 2024 was the first harvest to be made in the new winery just outside Chilham in Kent. Prior to that, the wines were made in the barn of the big apple grower on whose estate their vines were planted in 2017. This first cuvée is made up of 80% 2020 fruit and 20% 2019. (In 2018, much to their surprise, there was some fruit, as there was in 2019, but the crop was tiny.) The blend for this cuvée was 60% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier but the second edition will be different, apparently. All the fruit comes from vines round the winery, none from the west-facing slope across the road from the winery that was planted during lockdown. They will also eventually have access to a further 10 ha of Chardonnay four miles away. They currently own a total of 61 ha of vines of which 50 are in production. There is very obviously masses of chalk here with a little bit of flint. This cuvée was bottled in June 2021 and disgorged in August 2024 with a dosage of 7 g/l (less than in Champagne which is usually 8–9 g/l; I also found lower-than-usual dosages in several Belgian traditional method sparkling wines). ‘We wanted age not dosage to give weight,’ Ponnavoy told me. ‘Dosage depends on body and acid and our English wine doesn’t have the structure yet.’ Eventually there will also be a vintage-dated wine and a rosé.   The wine already has a very well-integrated nose, fresh bead and good but not excessive acidity. It’s certainly pleasing, in a citrus-fruity way that’s a bit reminiscent of its cousin in Champagne, if not exactly a standout. And it had not (yet?) developed much persistence. (JR)

The NV Brut Classic Cuvée Edition I is the inaugural release of Champagne Taittinger's English sparkling wine project founded in 2014, made from vines planted in 2017 in chalk and flint soils in Kent. It is based on the 2020 vintage with around 25% of reserve wines dating to the tiny first vintage of 2018 and the first proper vintage in 2019, all fermented and aged in stainless steel only, undergoing full malolactic conversion. The wine is a blend (...) reflecting the current plantings at the 69-hectare estate. A citric, bright lemon and green apple freshness defines the lively nose of the wine. More air allows lemony Viennoiserie to peep through, as well as an ozone breeze. Fine, creamy bubbles immediately distinguish the slender palate, where more lemon freshness is bedded in the smoothness of that exemplary mousse. An impressive and elegant debut, svelte and clean-cut, especially considering the Pinot Noir dominance of the wine. Chapeau.

12.5% alcohol. This is fine, linear and delicate with beautifully integrated acidity, and a subtle saline twist to the pure, lemony fruit, together with a hint of cherry. Pure, quite pristine and expressive, this is quite a delicate, refined wine, rather than a powerful one, and it works really well. A great start to this ambitious project.