Freedom of the Press Chardonnay 2023

Complex and elegant: lemon curd, tangerine, melon, with a savoury mineral core, delicate notes of butter and honey developing. A touch of new oak adds spice and structure. Essex fruit (from Martin’s Lane, Crouch Valley), made in 25% new, and 75% old (mellow) oak with full lees and malolactic conversion.

Freedom of the Press is a winery in the Cotswolds. The original plan was to establish an ‘urban winery’ in Oxford with no vineyards of their own, buying the best grapes from across the country. They would operate more like an in-town micro brewery or boutique distillery than what most people think of as a vineyard. So that was the plan – they had a venue selected and then in early Spring 2020 Covid took control of everybody’s lives, and the Oxford venue fell through. But just as it looked like it was curtains for the project they found a new home, a unit on a beautiful farm above Minster Lovell in the Cotswolds, 15 miles from Oxford.