Danbury Ridge Wine Estate Chardonnay 2021

Danbury Ridge have wowed the critics with their first couple of vintages. The 2021 is their third Chardonnay, and it is a worthy follow-up: it is Infused with their signature clementine oil aroma, and bursting with citrus notes. There is a gravitas to this Chardonnay that draws you in with its rich textures and depth of flavour with an array of glacé lemons, lime and stone fruits.

Fruit was handpicked and whole bunch pressed. With no settling the juice was transferred to 228L Burgundian oak barrels for fermentation. The wine was then left on gross lees for 12 months, where malolactic fermentation took place. Battonage was performed once, as the wine was transferred out of barrels to tank to give the wine further time on gross lees before bottling 6 months later. The wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered.

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.

Estuarine 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.