Gutter&StarsGutter&Stars There Goes The Fear Chardonnay 2023

Abundant apple, pear and white peach fruit on the nose and palate, complemented by a hint of woodsmoke, a dash of white pepper and the kind of bright, clean acidity that refreshes and delights in equal measure. This will age beautifully for five years or more.

Picked by hand in mid-October this small block of Chardonnay was whole-bunch pressed then fermented in barrel in the cool Gutter&Stars cellar. In total the Chardonnay spent 20 months in oak, adding roundness, body and structure to the bold tree/stone fruit and focused acidity. The wine spent a further 8 months maturing in bottle ahead of release.

There Goes the Fear is bottled unfined and unfiltered making it vegan friendly. Due to this hands-off approach the wine may throw a delicate, harmless sediment in the bottle.

Gutter&Stars’ winemaker and founder Chris Wilson had wanted to start his own winemaking business for some time, and 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.