Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Review: Winemaker’s Lunch with Chapel Down

Mark Harvey, Chapel Down’s managing director of wines, was in great form last week at our Spectator Winemaker’s Lunch, held as usual in our boardroom. And I must add that Mark’s wines were in equally tiptop shape.

With vineyards across Kent and a winery near Tenterden, Chapel Down is well-known as the largest producer of fine English wine. Although most of us around the table had enjoyed Chapel Down’s wares before, the one or two guests who hadn’t were taken aback by the wines’ quality, style and, well, sheer panache.

We started with the 2011 Three Graces, a fabulous fizz blended from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (the said three graces) and aged on the lees for four years. Crisp, clean and refreshing, it has delicious notes of nuts and toasty brioche with ripe, white stone fruit on the finish. The bottles were emptied in a flash, with guests begging for more.

With our starter of Forman & Field dill-cured gravadlax and sundried tomato and rocket salad we had the 2013 Kit’s Coty Blanc de Blancs (sparkling) and the 2014 Kit’s Coty Chardonnay (still), side by side. Both wines come from an exceptional south-facing single vineyard set high on the North Downs. The champagne-method fizz is of very fine quality. Aged for three years on the lees, it’s full of green and baked apple flavours and has a toasty, slightly honeyed finish. As for the Chardonnay, it’s without question the best still English wine I (or apparently any of our guests) have tasted. It’s mouth-fillingly fine with rounded, supple peach-like fruit and an ever so slightly toasty, vanilla finish thanks to nine months in French oak. If you like serious white Burgundy or Chablis, you’ll love this.

With a main course of asparagus, flamiche lorraine, charcuterie, crayfish and avocado cocktail, potato and roasted artichoke salad and mixed leaves we had Chapel Down’s 2016

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