FOOD & DRINK Looking across some of the 30 acres of Langham Wine Estate. In the Aube region of Champagne, in Sancerre and Chablis, there is Kimmeridgian and Portlandian soil; familiar Dorset names, making the terroir at Crawthorne Farm perfect for classic varieties such as Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock
On Cloud Wine Sitting in the sheltered courtyard under an unseasonably hot April sun, gazing across the gentle slopes of the vineyard, listening to the quiet hum of conversation, I could almost believe I was enjoying a sneaky French trip. Instead, I was enjoying a beautiful glass of award-winning sparkling wine just outside Milborne St Andrew. Last year, out of 700 wines, Langham Wine Estate won one of the most prestigious awards a winemaker can win – the International Wine & Spirit Competition Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year 2020. I’ll be honest - I hadn’t leaped to accept the invitation to tour the vineyard. Whilst I love a bottle of bubbles as much as the next woman, there’s a reason Sadie writes our wine column (and her wife Hannah picks our wine – perfectly - from our vague descriptions of what we like).
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I am not a wine connoisseur. The subtleties of the craft of winemaking are probably lost on me, and I wasn’t sure I’d do Langhams the justice they deserve. But. Being a wine connoisseur is not my job, and I’m never embarrassed to acknowledge what I don’t know (how else do we learn?). What I do know is that there is a lot of stigma around vineyards – impressive, intimidating places, many people won’t visit for fear of being looked down upon. So I pulled on my big girl pants, and headed for lunch at the vineyard.
The tour was endlessly interesting, and I have a notebook filled with random little snippets and facts, from the homemade barrel storage to the hand labelling of the bottles – Head Winemaker Tommy Grimshaw assured us he and his winery assistant could manage 1,500 of them a day. When we had seen the winemaking process from the barely-budding vines through to the finished labelled bottle, we stepped out to the courtyard to try some What was stand out for me on the tour was the dynamic
What a smart person I am. The wine tour was absolutely brilliant – if you know nothing about wine production it’s a fascinating introduction to the dark mystical arts. If you know your grapes, it’s still a fascinating introduction to the dark mystical arts. Because every vineyard is different (that’s the magic - I know, I read Sadie’s column every month, I’m learning), and every winemaker works in a different way.
Barrel Storage in the Winery. Image: Courtenay Hitchcock Always free - subscribe here
