Ambitious project

Lyme Bay Winery has released a trio of single vineyard wines as part of its ambitious project to further demonstrate the UK’s unique potential for still wines.

Sourced exclusively from Martin’s Lane Estate and Crows Lane Vineyard in Essex, James Lambert, MD and winemaker at Lyme Bay Winery is aiming to illustrate the diversity of the terroir and the superb potential for winemaking within specific UK regions.

“Alongside other producers, we want to help demonstrate that we can produce something truly special and consistently so. With the right clones and the right grapes, in the right places, the UK is uniquely positioned to produce world class still wines,” commented James Lambert.

The three wines are from the 2020 vintage and come from a selection of outstanding vineyard sites that were chosen due to their distinct characteristics.

Lyme Bay Martin’s Lane Pinot Noir is a deep ruby colour with a ripe cherry, dark chocolate and cedar nose. On the palate the dark fruit dominates the palate with cherries, blackcurrant and some lighter raspberry, underpinned by toasty vanilla and subtle spice.

Lyme Bay Martin’s Lane Chardonnay has notes of toasted almonds, ripe fruit and a smoky edge. On the palate it is a truly classic style of Chardonnay, focussing on richness and body. Red apple and lemon citrus underpin a long buttery and almond finish.

Lyme Bay Crows Lane Pinot Noir has gorgeous notes of black cherry, blackcurrant, and smoke. On the palate it displays a complex array of fruit including damsons, mulberry and raspberry, underpinned by toasty vanilla and spice.

Sarah Massey winemaker at Lyme Bay Winery commented: “2020 was a beautiful, long, hot summer which enabled the grapes to give us outstanding ripeness, resulting in the intensity of flavour and body for both the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.”

She continued: “Both the Pinot Noirs went through small batch fermentations with manual pigéage, every eight hours, to gently maximise the extraction of colour, flavour, and structure. The Chardonnay went through full malolactic fermentation and extended fine lees ageing for ten months in French oak, with regular bâtonnage to accentuate the natural weight and ripe fruit, creating a complex and textural style of Chardonnay. The individual parcels of grapes showed such great potential, as well as their own unique character. The phenolic ripeness was there as well as the sugar levels, it just made them perfect to showcase our first Single Vineyard expressions that truly represent a sense of place that those blocks uniquely showed in 2020.”

James Lambert concluded: “Since 2015 we’ve been looking to demonstrate what the potential for English still wines is. We do that through a relentless search of pockets of land owned by growers who share the same passion as we do, looking for the highest degrees of potential ripeness and wines that can really showcase the terroir. What we’ve been able to do with these single vineyard releases is focus in and look at specific blocks within vineyards to find something special. This is certainly a long-term project and alongside other still wine producers, we want the UK to increasingly be seen as a benchmark for growing the highest quality, cool climate still wines.”

Just over 2,000 bottles of these wines are available and the individual RRPs are: £35 for single vineyard Chardonnay and £40 for each single vineyard Pinot Noir from Lyme Bay Winery. The wines will also be in a selection of high-end retailers.