On a recent trip to Dorset we were checking out the vineyards as one does. One of these conveniently nearby to our base camp at Lyme Regis was Furleigh Vineyards. It is no doubt shameful that Furleigh didn't ring any bells because it is an operation which has won top awards from the start and whose wine, especially the sparkling ones are widely available.
Before deciding to visit Furleigh we bought a couple of their wines at the Seriously Good Wine Company in Lyme, a Chardonnay and this White Pinot Noir.
We had higher expectations from the former but it was actually the white Pinot Noir that really excited us. Our experience with white wine from Pinot Noir had been interesting in the past but nothing - not even the white PNs of Ticino (where they are a speciality) prepared us for this beauty.
So a trip to Furleigh Estate was essential.
The Cellar Door at Furleigh is excellently presented. This is obviously a well organised very professional operation which makes its back story all the more surprising:
Ian Edwards and Rebecca Hansford are both former actuaries who spent a major portion of their professional careers working in the pensions industry. When their firm merged with a competitor in 2002 they decided it was an opportunity to look at alternative careers and lifestyles. This eventually led them to purchasing the Furleigh Estate in West Dorset in 2004, which at one point had been owned and operated by Rebecca's father as a dairy farm. The new owners took the view that some of the land would be suitable for grape-growing so established a winemaking venture. Funding for the Furleigh Estate wine project has come in part from the EU Agricultural Fund for Rural Development. Currently Ian (by now a Plumpton graduate) is the winemaker while Rebecca runs the office administration.
The vineyard was planted in 2005/2006 with 22,000 vines on an area covering ca. 7 ha. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier make up ca. 70% of the plantings and are used to make sparkling wines. Bacchus and Rondo make up the remainder of the vineyard and these grapes are used for still wines.
The winery was constructed in 2007 and is fitted out with a pneumatic press, stainless steel tanks, riddling equipment and oak barrels.
Furleigh Estate wines have been regularly successful at competitions. Their most notable success to date has been winning the English Wine Trophy at the 2013 International Wine Challenge for their 2009 Classic Cuvée.
Furleigh Estate winemaking facilities are also being used to produce wines from nearby Bride Valley Vineyard.
English Wine Info.
Surprising because we have been pedalling the idea that the best English and Welsh winemakers are thos who have come to the UK with winemaking experience abroad and without ties to any specific place. Here we have great wine being made by people who are just the opposite, proving that it is possible to do things the other way.
Ian Edwards must have an immense natural talent. He was awarded UK Winemaker of the year in 2012/13 among many other awards and makes the wines of Bride Valley, Stephen Spurrier's estate also in Dorset.
One of these is labelled 'Dorset Cremant' - it is actually the first Cremant to be made in England. We have seen Cremant described as the name for wine made by the Methode Champagnoise outside Champagne but it is more specific than that with certain strict wine-making rules imposed including whole bunch pressing, a maximum yield of 100 litres per 150 kg of grapes, a maximum sulphur dioxide content of 150 ml per litre and a minimum of 9 months tirage on the lees plus a compulsory tasting control (thanks to Jancis Robinson's Oxford Companion to Wine for this definition).
the tasting room was manned by a charming gentleman who introduced himself as Nick. We later found out he was head of Sales but his enthusiasm was completely sincere and genuine.
Nick was kind enough to pour us samples of Furleigh's two Bacchus wines - a Bacchus Fume which has some exposure to wood
and a Bacchus Dry. Despite the suggestion that Bacchus has a taste of English hedgerows, we found both wines quite unlike any other Bacchus we had ever tasted and not at all hedgerow-y or English which in this case was rather to their advantage.
Furleigh Estate White Pinot Noir
Furleigh's website provides the following notes from a local wine expert and consultant Rebecca Mitchell DipWSET;
An unusual dry white wine with a sophisticated edge. Star-bright, medium intensity rose-gold with copper flashes. Highly aromatic with orange blossom and tangerine peel plus attractive stone fruits including apricot and yellow nectarine. The palate is distinctly fruit-driven with vibrant flavours of greengage, quetsch and yellow plum, as well as top notes of kumquat and ruby grapefruit. Uplifting freshness and juicy acidity combine to give a succulent mouth-watering wine with no trace of oak. Bursting with flavour, it combines rarity with food friendly versatility.
Serve chilled with mackerel escabeche or pickled herrings. Enjoy it with sea-trout served on a bed of fennel and ruby grapefruit. Delicious with sea bass drizzled with sauce vierge. Excellent with guinea-fowl and kumquat dressing, or turkey and cranberry sauce. Also pairs well with pork stuffed with apricots.
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