Produced from the Rotherfield site since 1999, The 2005 vintage is made entirely from the Pinot Noir and Auxerrois grapes, grown organically at Will Davenport's Rotherfield vineyard and aged on the lees for 2 years before disgorging. It has a crisp citrus / apple flavour, softened by ripe fruit, good yeast character. Overall it shows some of the character of a Blanc de Noir Champagne, even though it contains a sizable proportion of Auxerrois - the Pinot Noir flavours are dominant.
This 2005 wine featured among Tom Stevenson's top 20 English Sparkling wines. It has won silver and a Bronze medals in the competitions over the last few years and helped this excellent wine producer retain the Montague Trophy for the second year running (previously won by their Horsmonden dry white).
Limney Farm, Rotherfield, East Sussex
This 4 acre vineyard was planted in 1993 and has been brought up with largely organic management techniques - no chemical fertilizers, no herbicides since 1997 and mainly organic fungicides. The site is planted on a steep west facing slope, with good hedges and windbreaks to give shelter from the winds. Soil is a sandy/clay loam with a well-drained sandstone subsoil. The area is very rich in iron, and this was exploited by the Romans who extracted and smelted the iron ore at Limney Farm. The vineyard was hit by frost in 1997 which set back the cropping date by a year. As a result our first commercial crop was harvested in 1999. The vineyard has been planned specifically for the production of sparkling wines. Grape varieties are:
