Food & Drink
Cheers! Sparkling future for vineyard By Steve Keenan
newsdesk@blackmorevale.net
A Dorset vineyard has sold out of its top-rated sparkling wine after the company scooped an international award. The website at Langham Wine Estate crashed for three days in a row when the winery was named Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year, beating prestigious French Champagne houses. In those three days, Langham sold more sparkling wine online than in the whole of the 2018-19 season. And top of the sales chart was the Blanc de Blancs 2015, retailing at £31 and awarded a gold and second highest score for any sparkling wine in the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC). At present, only magnums are available, at £75. “The website just melted down,” director Justin Langham told The New Blackmore Vale. “We had individuals buying from all over the country, while every one of our trade customers has come on saying they want more because the wine is flying off the shelves.” The IWSC is one of the largest competitions of its kind, and the trophy for Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year is awarded to the winery who demonstrates quality and consistency across its range, taking an average score from the producer’s wines. More than 700 wineries entered the competition, with Langham entering all five of its sparkling wines. Last year, French house Veuve Clicquot was the winner. It is a remarkable triumph, given that Langham is a single vineyard of just 30 acres, planted in 2009. 42
CHEERS ALL ROUND: The team at Langham Wine Estate celebrate after being named Sparkling Wine producer of the Year in the International Wine and Spirit Competition. Inset: A bottle of their award- winning sparkling Blanc De Blanc
“Eleven years of hard work has paid off,” said Justin, who planted the vines and turned his father’s small vineyard into a commercial venture. “It’s been slowly paying off for the past four or five years but it was hard work building up sales. I thought that if we could produce a good wine, people will buy it. I found out that’s not the case. “We had won a fair few awards and I thought that would be helpful but it wasn’t significantly helpful. “This is.” Langhams has a small staff and produces 50,000 bottles a year, a relatively small number in the industry. There are still rose and chardonnay
wines, as well as the five sparkling wines. “I put the success down to three things,” said Justin. “First, the grapes we grow (chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier). The site is extremely good and the clones of the three varieties we grow affects all sorts of things in the vine. “Secondly, as we are relatively small, we do everything ourselves, which is not what most people do. If anything goes wrong, we have only ourselves to blame. “We pay very good attention to detail. “And thirdly, the way we make and blend the wine.” As well as gold for Blanc de Blancs, silver medals were awarded for its
Corallian Classic Cuvee and Culver Classic Cuvee, recognised as “sophisticated and complex” by the judges; as well as for the Pinot Meunier 2017 and Langham Rosé NV. The whole wine industry in England is upping its game, said Justin, and is still growing fast. Last year, Langham teamed up with two other Dorset vineyards – English Oak and Furleigh – to promote the county’s wines. Visitor numbers to Langham have grown steadily for the past six or seven years, he added, and now account for about 100 a day, every day of the week. After the first lockdown ended, numbers visiting were double that of summer 2019. The vineyard also expects to re-open its café this week.
