Grape: 100% Pinot Noir
ABV: 12.5%
Price: £22
This elegant Pinot Noir is full of fruit but soft as anything and so light on its feet at only 12.5%. If it were a person, it would be Audrey Hepburn with a tan. Ripe, morello cherry fruit and plum with gentle spice. The 2018 was universally the best vintage that English wine has ever had!
Who is Charles Palmer?
I got to know Charles Palmer’s beautiful English wines by tasting them at the Michelin-star restaurant, The Black Swan at Oldstead. Charles Palmer is a family run wine estate in Winchelsea, East Sussex with vineyards located just one mile from the sea. Charles chose this spot for its ideal combination of climate and soils. With its proximity to the sea and land at just five metres above sea level, the vines are exposed to warmer night temperatures than other locations, key for assisting ripening grapes in cool climate areas such as England. The soil is a bed of Kimmeridgian clay which is known to suit Pinot Noir and Chardonnay particularly as it is the same as that in the French region of Burgundy, famous for those same grape varieties.
Charles Palmer's first vines were planted in 2006 and produced with the help of well-known winemaker Will Davenport, but now the reins have been handed over to Charles’ son Robert Palmer, so everything is done in house. The family own all their own vineyards too, putting them in full control of their production.
As well as this gorgeous Pinot Noir, Charles Palmer makes award-winning sparkling wines (a classic blend, a rosé, a special reserve and a demi-sec). You can buy any of the wines here: