Sussex

For over 25 years Nyetimber has had a single aim: to make the finest English sparkling wine, one to rival the very best in the world, including Champagne. A true pioneer, Nyetimber was the first producer of English sparkling wine to exclusively grow the three celebrated grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay. Each bottle of Nyetimber is made from 100 percent estate-grown grapes.

This sparkling wine has a fine mousse that enhances the toasty, almond and honey notes. The acidity is poised and provides the perfect foil to the baked apple and spice on the palate. Perfect served chilled as an apéritif, but also good with lighter starters, shellfish or poultry.

Nyetimber's history has been colourful, its vinous ownership having passed from the American Stuart Moss, via the flamboyant pop impresario Andy Hill to the Dutch entrepreneur Eric Heerema. In the more distant past its decorative Manor House was built by Henry VIII for Anne of Cleves, although she never actually took ownership, thanks, famously, to Holbein's pictorial exaggeration of her charms.

The far more charming Cherie Spriggs is now firmly at the helm making the wines at Nyetimber and the 2007 is one of the first wines that she has supervised from start to finish... A great success all round; Aromas of nectarine, bergamot and sourdough lead onto a poised and harmoniously balanced palate, with scant evidence of the slightly grassy notes that one sometimes associates with English sparklers. Extended ageing has added a pleasing biscuit complexity and the finish is both refreshing and powerful.
Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer

Nyetimber, famed for its Chardonnay bias have bucked this trend with their first Pinot Noir-dominated sparkling wine. Tillington is a plot with vines planted in 2006 and 2007, sharing similar soil (greensand, not chalk, but like this drains well and heats up quickly so helping with ripening) to other sites they own.  So on the face of it nothing obviously special. 

However, winemaker Cherie Spriggs and her team have noted a particular quality to the fruit in the vineyard itself as the vines flower then fruit, which comes through in the wines.  They blind taste the still wines for their blends and a floral and intense dark red fruited character of Tillington apparently often comes through.  2009 was an auspicious vintage in which to bottle Tillington separately, characterised as it was by up to 40% lower than average rainfall in August and September so allowing long fruit development, enhanced by 3 years lees ageing.

In the glass, I was at first surprised by definite lemon zest and honeydew melon aromas being quite pronounced, but then violets come to the fore and subtle dark red fruit.  This latter, as wild strawberry and hints of black cherry envelopes the palate cloaked in a fine citric minerality courtesy of the 21% Chardonnay reining in some of that Pinot Noir power, so that the whole ensemble is a finely elegant wine.  Drinking beautifully now, but it will be fascinating to see how this develops over coming years as the Pinot Noir asserts itself further.
Edwin Dublin, Champagne and Sparkling Wine Specialist