English White Wines
Gutter&Stars Star Guitar Sauvignon Blanc 2025
Brimming with ripe tropical fruit, citrus-spiked acidity and jalapeño-flecked spice
Sauvignon Blanc grown at Creeksea Place Barns on the bank of the River Crouch in Essex was fermented and aged in old French oak to create a wine brimming with ripe tropical fruit, citrus-spiked acidity and jalapeño-flecked spice.
Single-site Sauvignon Blanc was picked by hand and gently whole-bunch pressed. The juice was settled in stainless steel before fermentation in old French oak barrels using Burgundian yeasts.
Fermentation was slow and long, taking 34 days, then the wine was racked off its gross less and aged in neutral oak barrels (228 Litre, ex-Burgundy) on the fine lees for six months with no battonage.
The wine was bottled on 20th May 2026.
Gutter&Stars’ winemaker and founder Chris Wilson had wanted to start his own winemaking business for some time, and over the past three years searched for the perfect site for a small-scale urban winery in Cambridge, the city he’s lived in with his family since 2013. In 2020 a golden opportunity came up to house the winery in the basement of a Grade II listed windmill less than a mile from the city centre, and work began turning this octagonal cave into the city’s first winemaking facility. The winery is housed in the mill’s basement. It’s the perfect spot in some ways (a 15°C ambient temperature, a good drainage system, bags of character) and challenging in others (low ceiling height, single phase power, narrow-ish door).
