New frontiers in English wine: Visiting Chapel Down

There has never been a more exciting time for English wine. After the UK’s long and glorious summer of 2018, the harvest was a storming success and the vintage is already set to be a classic, meaning that even more eyes are going to be on English wine in the very near future. If these warmer summers are a sign of things to come, English vineyards will be able to start producing wines that we’d sooner associate with Spain and Portugal. In fact, one winery in England is growing Albariño already.

An English terroir at Chapel Down

Despite all of the comparisons made with Champagne – the climate, the soils, the grape varieties that can be grown – Chapel Down is unmistakably English. Looking across at the vast swathes of lush green vines in Tenterden, Kent, it is (with the exception of a field filled with Andean alpacas blithely munching on the grass) the image of the Garden of England, the land of picnics and cricket. ‘Englishness’ is key to Chapel Down’s charm. It isn’t France and it isn’t pretending to be. Being ‘different’ is what Chapel Down CEO Frazer Thompson attributes their success to.

But, we’ll start with the comparisons, for those who still grimace at the thought of English wine. Like Champagne, Chapel Down is just on the northern cusp of 50 degrees latitude, just 90 miles north of Champagne. Both regions possess those iconic chalk soils and a similar climate which can grow the same grapes, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc. The grapes are hand harvested and are fermented using the Traditional Method and winemaking practices such as cool fermentation, malolactic fermentation and lees treatment are employed. It’s no surprise that some more established producers in France are buying land here.

Yet, as Frazer says, there’s pride in being different – Chapel Down don’t simply want to make English Champagne. There are factors that make the wine here unique, like the sea minerals from deep down in the soil. This area used to be called Smallhythe, meaning Small Harbour, and not too many centuries ago, the land here would have been underwater. The area was turned into a vineyard in 1977, when Stephen Skelton planted around five and a half acres of Müller-Thurgau, Reichensteiner, Gutenborner and Seyval Blanc, vines that were originally from Germany.

Since then, Bacchus has become the grape king of English wine, as it can create wines that can reach powerfully pungent levels of aroma that have distinct tropical fruit elements. Thought to be a crossing of Müller-Thurgau and a Silvaner x Riesling cross, it is incredibly characterful when able to ripen fully, taking English wine to new heights of flavour and complexity. However Bacchus and the Champagne grapes aren’t the only varieties doing well in Chapel Down’s vineyards – Albariño, Regent and Rondo are staples in their wine portfolio now too.

Working with the British weather

There’s also another aspect to the Englishness that makes it an industry you feel compelled to rally behind. A bit like the loveable fop played by Hugh Grant in the film Notting Hill, winemaking in England can only be done with a hopeful heart each spring and there’s a real chance of heartbreak if the weather takes a turn for the worst. Most English winemakers will probably want to erase all memories of 2012, when the rain made for a miserable harvest, jeopardising profits for the coming years and throwing an entire year of work down the drain.

Of course, there are measures taken to stay ahead of the good old British weather, including sourcing fruit from a wider geographical area that stretches beyond Kent and into Essex and Hampshire, which reduces the risks of crop failure and allows consistency to be maintained. Team these practicalities with the British sense of humour, hardiness and innovation, and you’ve got an industry that can not only survive but can thrive into the future.

Case in point was in 2017 when the Chapel Down Three Graces 2010 vintage received the highest award at the Ultimate Wine Challenge, beating many top Champagnes to the Chairman’s Trophy. Leading figureheads in the US wine industry judged the sparkling wine to be worthy of 94 points, commenting, ‘Beautiful fruit is magnified by classic flavours of brioche and brown spice with incredible minerality and structure.’

Although critics rave about English sparkling wine, demand still heavily outweighs supply. The entire English sparkling wine industry only produced four million bottles last year, which is minuscule compared to the 295 million coming out of Champagne.

But the good news is that the English wine industry is growing, and Chapel Down is one of the many English wineries that is acquiring more vineyards. The company plans to have access to 385 hectares of grapes by 2021. And, as the vines mature, they expect to be doubling their production. After this year’s bumper harvest, I don’t doubt they will – and then some.

Chapel Down wine tasting notes

Chapel Down Bacchus 2017

Their signature still white wine. Pale lemon in colour and highly aromatic, reminiscent of a Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc. Notes of gooseberry and elderflower hit the nose and it is clean, fresh and zesty on the palate. There are tropical fruits, but not overbearingly so – I get some zippy kiwi – and there’s some grassiness too. It all ends on a crisp, dry finish.

Kits Coty Bacchus 2016 North Downs Kent

2016 was a warm, sunny, dry vintage which produced high quality fruit in the Kits Coty vineyards. The result is a very ripe style of Bacchus, expressing guava, melon, white peach and passionfruit. The grapes were whole-bunch pressed before wild fermentation in 3^rd and 4^th fill barrels where the wine stayed for nine months, and this wonderful complexity comes through on the palate, showing the oak influence and creamy, brioche notes, finishing with exceptional length.

Chapel Down Vintage 2017 English Rose

This still, salmon-pink rosé is the English summer in a bottle. A blend of Bacchus,Pinot Noir, Regent, Rondo and Pinot Meuniert, it’s all about the strawberries and cream on the nose. There’s a good, juicy acidity on the palate, where citrus fruits and white peach come through pleasantly.

Kits Coty Blanc de Blancs 2013

A sparkling Chardonnay, the Blanc de Blancs from Kits Coty shows typical aromas of cool climate wines in this style – green apple and freshly baked bread. The palate shows development from maturation on the lees and a toasty character from partial barrel fermentation, also bringing out some notes of dried apricots and raisins. The finish is savoury with fine persistent bubbles.

Chapel Down Three Graces 2014

The classic Champagne blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, Three Graces has benefitted from cool fermentation in stainless steel, then full malolactic fermentation, then further maturation on fine lees for six months before bottling. It has had a minimum of three further years ageing on lees in bottle, resulting in a deep, complex wine. Aromas of ripe apple, red berries, blossom and brioche fill the nose and follow through to the palate, creating a sensation of richness with fantastic length and fine persistent bubbles.

Chapel Down Union Red 2016

This blend of Rondo, Pinot Noir and Regent benefitted from a dry, warm and sunny growing season which produced extremely high quality fruit. The result is a spicy, full-bodied wine, brimming with cherries and blackcurrants. Smooth and rounded on the palate, it’s juicy, meaty and very tasty – a complete revelation to me!

Written by Sophia Longhi

Sophia Longhi blogs at skinandpulp.com. She has just completed her WSET 3 and is looking forward to a lifetime of learning and writing about wine.