‘Let’s make some cool English wine and sell it for charity!’ (We thought, back in 2016.) Fast forward roughly a decade and…after much sweating, cursing, begging and borrowing, we have raised OVER £33,000 for the BRILLIANT Marine Conservation Society to restore our seas and fight climate change. The project’s over now – but if that’s not worth a big ‘CHEERS!’, we don’t know what is…
‘Really interesting (and delicious) English wines … Fabulous’ Jancis Robinson MW OBE
Right, so, the story. We’re Susie & Peter, married Masters of Wine and broadcasters. We love English wine and so making some delicious bottles as a collaborative and charitable project was our idea of fun. (We clearly need to get out more.)
We made two Hampshire sparkling wines and one red (Essex Pinot Noir). We made a podcast about how it all started and another podcast about how it’s all ending. But, to start at the beginning – initially we teamed up with Hampshire winery Hattingley Valley to make 1,000 bottles of fine sparkling wine. We started in October 2016 by helping harvest and press the grapes, which you can see in the video below. Susie was focused on quality whereas Peter was all about the quantity. Story of our marriage…
Once the fermentation was over, the next step (in March 2017) was to blend base wines together with award-winning winemaker Emma Rice. This is a big decision – so Peter is largely ignored. As you can see in the video above.
Then it was a waiting game. The wine was put into bottles in June 2017, with yeast and sugar. This second fermentation in bottle not only gives it the fizz but also flavour and richness, as the wine matures over time. This all takes a couple of years...
Waiting for wine is never easy, though. And we had so much fun making the first one that we just couldn’t stop ourselves getting involved the next vintage as well. So in October 2017 we went along to help (hinder?) the pickers once again and then, in February 2018, sat down with Jacob Leadley to craft another delicious fizz (see below).
We wanted to do something different so focused on Pinot Meunier, a grape we feel has the potential to become a real forté for English sparkling wine with its beautifully evocative aromas and rounded yet fresh flavour profile. The final blend was pretty much half-half Meunier and Chardonnay, with a healthy third of that aged in oak. So that made TWO (sparkling) wines on the go.
And then, just as we were hanging up our wine-making spurs, along came 2018. The vintage of a lifetime in the UK. And we thought – we can’t let this opportunity pass. So we went for one last hurrah – the third and final bottle to complete the set…a fine red Pinot Noir from…Essex! Made at the brilliant Danbury Ridge, a star producer on the English wine scene.
Here’s Danbury Ridge winemaker Liam Idzikowski explaining what makes Essex Pinot Noir so special. He describes it (winningly) as, ‘frontier winemaking’ and adds: ‘we’re on the cusp of something.’ Note the irrigation pipes in the background – this is one of the warmest and driest parts of the UK. It can also get, as you will hear, a bit blustery!
So there you have it. Our full set of brilliant English wines went on sale in late November 2021. The wines were received very well and we ended up raising over £33,000 for the Marine Conservation Society.
We’re very proud to have been able to work alongside such a fantastic charity partner on this project. ALL profits raised from the Big English Wine Adventure went to the Marine Conservation Society (registered charity no. 1004005), which works to protect and restore our precious seas, with all their vital ecosystems and invaluable ability to counter the climate crisis.
For more details on the Marine Conservation Society’s work, do check out our podcast Making Wines for Hope & Glory plus here’s a link to the small-print detail.
We’re so proud of how the wines turned out. Utterly delicious! But don’t take it from us – wine luminary Jancis Robinson MW OBE has described them as ‘delicious…fabulous’ while The Wine Society’s Director of Wine, Pierre Mansour, deemed them to be, ‘stunning.’
One Instagram user pondered whether the Pinot Noir was, ‘England’s best red?’ while Jonathan Q-E wrote in to say: ‘We drank the sparkling wines (and) they smacked all the champagnes and cavas for six. So rich and exciting and a super treat. The Pinot I drank yesterday just blew me away. I love Pinot Noir but I can’t remember having one more exquisite than this. It’s so generous and beautifully balanced. It’s a proper emotional wine, and a great achievement.’
The project has also been featured in the likes of Decanter and The Drinks Business.
As showcased in Decanter (above), the bottles also look impeccable.
Our amateur snaps don’t do them justice but we’re thrilled with how they turned out. Hendog’s art is sensational, making these bottles true collectors’ items.
Finally, we’d like to sincerely thank the people and companies who have supported this project, Without their collaborative, generous spirit, the Big English Wine Adventure would never have happened. They are: