Gusbourne has launched Fifty One Levels North English glowing wine from the 2014 classic at £195 per bottle, which is believed to make it the costliest up to now launched.
Some others aren’t too far behind – Nyetimber’s 1086 rosé 2010 is £175 – but Gusbourne’s transfer reinforces a way of ambition inside the UK wine world to be a daily fixture at this status cuvée degree.
Fifty One Levels North, named after the place of Gusbourne’s vineyards in Kent and West Sussex, is a mix of two-thirds Chardonnay and one-third Pinot Noir, and was aged 80 months on lees. It displays eight years of tasting and monitoring behind the scenes, based on chief winemaker Charlie Holland.
‘It’s nice to lastly discuss it with individuals,’ he instructed Decanter. ‘There aren’t any shortcuts to any of this.’
Just below 4,000 bottles of the 2014 version have been produced and the vineyard doesn’t intend to launch the wine in each classic.
‘We wish this to be one of the best winemaking we are able to do,’ stated Holland, who was about to start his 10th harvest at Gusbourne, with choosing set to start on 18 September this yr.
‘Every little thing that goes into this wine is one of the best of what we are able to do, one of the best a part of the fruit, the purest juice popping out of the press and afterwards, whenever you come to mixing, essentially the most expressive elements.’
He described Fifty One Levels North as a gastronomic wine, able to standing as much as a spread of flavours on the dinner desk.
He stated this partly displays Gusbourne’s character. ‘When it comes to the English wine scene, we’re very often seen as being on the riper finish of the spectrum, largely I believe due to our clay soils,’ he stated.
Commenting on the brand new cuvée mix, he stated: ‘Usually the Chardonnay, it does have that beautiful freshness and construction and spine, however the stuff we’ve on the clay, particularly, actually has this beautiful mouthfeel and texture and weight. After we have been this wine, these have been key descriptors we have been making an attempt to establish.’
The mix may change on future releases, though Holland stated it broadly mirrored Gusbourne’s winery make-up of fifty% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier.
He stated it was too early to substantiate which different vintages may see a Fifty One Levels North launch. He stated there can be a give attention to hotter, riper years, nevertheless it’s a ready recreation to see which make the grade.
He believes the launch displays a broader ‘coming of age’ for UK wine. ‘There’s a certain quantity of ambition we’re placing into this,’ he stated. Comparisons to status cuvée Champagne are maybe inevitable, however he believes the broader UK trade is growing a larger sense of its personal identification.
‘We’re at this inflection level,’ he stated. ‘Individuals know the standard’s nice, [so] how far can we go?’
On Fifty One Levels North, he added: ‘We do an enormous quantity of benchmarking with this wine, in opposition to different status cuvées from world wide and clearly simply over the [English] Channel.
‘We tasted extensively and did blind tastings and basically confirmed it to plenty of individuals below a unique guise earlier than we launched it, in order that we have been tremendous assured about it.’
UK wines have been robust performers on the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) lately. At DWWA 2022, Coates & Seely, Reserve Brut NV gained one among 50 coveted ‘Greatest in Present’ medals.
