County Business Club Wine of the Month March 2022

Nutty Vintage Brut 2017 – £25.50

It’s been a few years since I last visited the lovely vineyard at Nutbourne, positioned just North of the South Downs near Pulborough in West Sussex, in a beautiful setting with an old mill where you can taste the vineyards wines. We had a lovely walk (with pram) around the vineyards which lasted around half an hour and included a meeting with their pack of lovely Llamas who graze in the vineyard. The vineyard offers a range of different growing techniques for vines on different structures around the vineyard which offers an insight into how vines are grown across Europe. 

The vineyard is well worth a visit, with the knowledgeable Olivia who will take you through the range of wines they have to offer. What I like about Nutbourne is that they very much do their own thing, both with their still and sparkling wines. They make a wide range of wines including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir or Reichensteiner. As well as selling their wines locally to vintners and restaurants they also showcase their wines through a selection of their own restaurants in London. A nice touch with Nutbourne is the art on each bottle, just as Nutbourne wines are only made from grapes grown on the estate, every bottle features owner Bridget Gladwin’s paintings.

This month’s wine of the month is their Nutty Vintage Brut 2017 which is their latest release of sparkling wine for 2022. 

Nutty Vintage Brut 2017

It is traditional champagne method style and offers a bit more substance for the start of spring. 

The winemaker’s tasting notes are;

A traditional Bottle Fermented Sparkling Wine made with Pinot Noir and Chardonnay to create a zesty, dry, balanced wine with excellent fruit. This wine is matured in the bottle for 3 years before a vintage is released.

This artwork is of the vine in Winter – old intertwined wood, resting after producing the wine, which is gently maturing in the cave. 

Michael’s tasting notes:

This wine has a nice fruity nose from the pinot noir grape together with a nice floral note. This is followed by a nice fruity burst in the mouth with a citrus backbone followed by a nice bit of complexity from 5% of the wine being aged in oak. 

Awards – 2021 Silver medal at WineGB Awards

Food pairings

From the vineyard:

Nutty Vintage can compete with any sparkling wine in the world. Great for lavish entertaining and special celebrations, it is a lovely aperitif to pair with canapés, oysters, smoked salmon and quail eggs. It is also a treat to cut the sweetness of rich chocolatey desserts.

From Michael:

The Nutty Vintage will work well as an aperitif or with food with salty nibbles such as smoked salmon canapés, local salami (such as Rebel) or a mushroom pate. 

Fact of the month for English Wines – 

The English wine sector is up to about 3,800 ha now under vine, which has more than doubled in in eight years. There has also been 70% increase in the last five years, so people are planting more vines in the UK. Even this year with lockdown and the pandemic, there was still another 1.4 million vines planted in 2021. (taken from Harpers.co.uk)

Michael Yeoman,

English Wine and International  Wine Specialist

Michael Yeoman, produces his own range of sustainable spirits with Spirit of the Downs (www.spiritofthedowns.co.uk) and works with small batch local vineyards with his Brighton and Hove Wine Club (www.brightonandhovewineclub.co.uk)