Cuvée Vintage, Wiston Estate 2020
Mix any six bottles and you pay the Any 6+ price at checkout — no code needed.
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Why this wine
Wiston sits on the same chalk as Champagne and has been working it since 2006, with the Coquard basket press and old Burgundian barrels to match. Five years on lees is far longer than most English sparkling gets, and it shows in the breadth. A vintage wine at close to the price of a supermarket non-vintage Champagne.
At a glance
- Grape
- Pinot Noir 57%, Chardonnay 33%, Meunier 10%
- Region
- Sussex, England
- Alcohol
- 12.00%
- Body
- Medium
- Acidity
- High
- Sweetness
- Dry
- Drink
- Long (10-20 yrs)
- Pairs with
- Seafood, Poultry & Pork, Cheese
How it tastes
Each variety is fermented in old Burgundy and Bordeaux barrels and the blend then rests five years on lees, so the shape is broad and bready rather than lean, and the mousse is fine. Twelve per cent alcohol and 8 g/l of sugar leave it firmly dry, with the brisk acidity that South Downs chalk gives running the length of a saline finish. Pinot Noir 57%, Chardonnay 33%, Meunier 10%.
The producer
Wiston Estate has belonged to the Goring family since 1743 and is presided over today by Harry and Pip Goring, with their son Richard and his wife Kirsty running the vineyard and winery day to day; it was Pip, who grew up in South Africa's winelands, whose conviction that the South Downs shared soil and climate with Champagne led to the planting. The original 16-acre Findon Park vineyard went in in 2006 with a spread of Champagne and Burgundy clones, in a secluded valley four kilometres north of the coast where the airflow staves off disease and spring frost is rare, and where some 30 centimetres of topsoil sit directly on the solid chalk of the Downs; under winemaker Marcus Rayner-Ward the team works to biodynamic principles, with cover crops between alternate rows, home-made compost, recycled pressed skins, biodegradable tie-downs and no herbicides, and picks everything by hand. Each variety is pressed separately in a traditional Coquard basket press and fermented in second- and third-use barrels from Burgundy and Bordeaux, rested on lees until the following summer, then blended and bottled for a cool, slow second fermentation, five years on lees and a final period on cork after disgorging.
Food and drinking
Serve at 8°C, in a white-wine glass. It suits Dover sole, dressed crab, a roast chicken or a mature Cheddar, and is drinking well now and for three to five years; no decanting. Suitable for vegetarians and vegans.