English Still Wines
Danbury Ridge Wine Estate Chardonnay 2018
Elegantly perfumed and fresh with citrus flavours of lime zest and mandarin with white peach, long finish
Danbury Ridge have wowed the critics with their inaugral still wine releases. This is their first Chardonnay, from the fabulous 2018 vintage: it is elegantly perfumed and fresh with citrus flavours of lime zest and mandarin with white peach. This palate displays mouth-watering acidity with a delightful texture and great length.
Fruit was handpicked and whole bunch pressed. After little or no settling the juice was transferred to 228L Burgundian oak barrels for fermentation. The wine was then left on gross lees for 10 months, where malolactic fermentation took place without battonage. The wine received another 10 months elevage before release without any fining.
Danbury Ridge was founded by two generations of the Bunker family: Michael and Heather Bunker and their daughters, Janine and Sophie. The first vines were planted in 2014, with an unwavering focus on still Pinot Noir and Chardonnay clones to exploit the unique mesoclimate. After just a few seasons the vines were producing grapes of a ripeness previously unseen in the UK.
Estaurine Essex is smeared with a thick layer of London Clay, but at Danbury Ridge this tenacious deposit lies beneath a significant overburden of fluvial-glacial sand and gravel. It is this coarse aggregate, deep in some places, shallow in others, that makes Danbury Ridge so special. The Danbury Ridge mesoclimate comes into its own in late summer. Ripening does not stall with the autumn equinox. Natural woodland shelter belts, together with the light topsoils, magnify the effects of September sunlight.
