Brut Rosé

Henry and Kaye create their brut rosé with a focus on fruit expression and pleasure. They wanted to combine a soft and approachable structure that balances enjoyment with enough complexity and intrigue to keep you coming back for more. A large part of their effort is focused on the red wine component that lends the color, red fruit and vinous character to the wine. The grapes come from the 6.5 hectare vineyard along a Thames gravel terrace, formed by the river cutting into the Chilterns chalk around 450,000 years ago. It left behind a complex layer of clay, flint, and gravel that Henry and Kaye felt would be perfect for their Pinot Noir, giving it ripeness, texture and weight. Further down the slope the clay layer gets thinner before you get to the pure chalk that is home to their Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Here they like the freshness and minerality it lends to the Chardonnay while keeping the Meunier elegant with great aromatics and acidity. This release is based on the 2018 harvest, a watershed year in the UK, with an almost faultless season of record low rainfall and record levels of sunshine and heat, giving the rare combination of generous yields and great ripeness.

The three varieties were harvested by hand and after whole-bunch pressing, were inoculated for primary fermentation in separate temperature-controlled tanks. Once the batches were dry, the wine was bottled for secondary fermentation. The wine rested on its lees in bottle for 32 months before disgorgement, which took place in June 2022. The disgorged, filtered, and gently sulfured wines were resealed with 7% red wine that saw 6 days of skin contact to achieve a lively pink hue.