'Painter of Light' Chardonnay 2021 - Blackbook Winery

Grapes are sourced from the single Clay Hill Vineyard in Essex and harvested in mid-October.

Currently they buy hand-picked, carefully selected grapes from Oxfordshire and Essex, the fruit being transported to the winery in small crates to avoid damage to the bunches. Inside the winery itself there is shiny up-to-the-minute equipment and French oak barrels in which their chardonnay is fermented and their pinot noir matured. A sparkling wine is also made, sold undisgorged under a crown cap as well as under cork after disgorgement. Ex-sommelier Sergio has many stamps in his passport from his time travelling the world, gaining winemaking experience at prestigious estates that include de Montille in Burgundy and Calera in California, and he is putting it to good use here.

This may be unlikely surroundings but the wines are uncommonly good, as illustrated by the chardonnay. The fruit is from a single vineyard, naturally fermented in Burgundian oak barrels before a further 7 months ageing on the lees, and it is then bottled unfined and unfiltered.