With its Blanc de Noirs 2010 being named Supreme Champion at the inaugural Wine GB Awards, its Cuvée 2013 being named the UK’s Best Sparkling Wine in the Decanter World Wine Awards 2017 AND twice GB winery of the year, life is good for Wiston Estate. It’s a testament the combined efforts and expertise of estate managers Richard and Kirsty Goring, and winemaker Dermot Sugrue, and confirms Wiston as a genuine trailblazer of quality English sparkling wine. With its 8ha of sustainably managed vineyards, most of which are planted on the same pure chalk soil as Champagne’s Côte des Blancs, this historic South Downs estate is ideally situated to produce world-class traditional method sparkling wine. As well as working from a gravity-fed cellar, Wiston also boast an authentic 1973 Coquard basket press, prized for its slow, gentle pressing. Wiston also now has the luxury of reserve wines going back to 2009, meaning an optimal library of wine stock from which to make the best sparkling wines available anywhere in the UK.
It's hard to think of anyone more instrumental and influential in the world of English sparkling wine than Dermot Sugrue. In fact, no one knows more about it than Dermot, who put Nyetimber on the map when he worked there in the early vintages. We have devotedly followed him, not unlike his beloved lurchers do, since we were spell-bound by the release of his own Sugrue South Downs from the 2009 vintage. Those who know about English fizz may talk about Nyetimber, as it was the first serious player in the market. Their quality is very good, as is the quality of others such as Ridgeview, Gusbourne, Jenkyn Place and Black Dog Hill (the latter two made by Dermot). But if you want to be serving what is the best, you need to have Dermot’s latest releases from Wiston Estate in your cellar.
