Simpsons 2020 Gravel Castle Chardonnay United Kingdom White Wine 75 cl 12,5%

Simpsons 2020 Gravel Castle Chardonnay United Kingdom White wine 75 cl 12,5%

Buy Simpsons Gravel Castle Chardonnay 2020 at Whisky.dk

Wine house: Simpsons
Name: Simpsons 2020 Gravel Castle Chardonnay
Grapes: Chardonnay
Country: United Kingdom
Type: White wine
Alc. strength: 12,5%
75 cl.

90 points Houlberg's Wine Blog
89-90 points. On some sunny, chalky slopes of the North Downs on Church Lane in picturesque Barham, near Canterbury in Kent, lies the Simpsons Wine Estate and it's from there that the next wine comes... a 2020 Gravel Castle Chardonnay. Simpsons Wine Estate is run by winemaking couple Charles and Ruth Simpson, who founded the winery in 2012. But they had already started their wine adventure ten years earlier, when in 2002 they bought a small wine estate just east of the town of Servian in Languedoc in the lovely south of France. That winery is called Domaine Sainte Rose and we have previously come across it here at Houlberg's Wine Blog, namely when I tasted their fantastic 2018 Le Pinacle Syrah from their 40 hectares of vineyards in the French countryside. It is probably the great success in France that has given the Simpsons couple the courage to also try their hand at wine production in England, where they have bought a total of 30 hectares of land. The first 10 hectares were planted in 2014 with Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir. The last 20 hectares - with the same grape varieties - is the Railway Hill Vineyard, named after the light rail line that runs past the field from Canterbury to Folkestone, which they planted in 2016 and 2017. The grape varieties are the classic champagne grapes... and that's because Simpsons Wine Estate makes mostly sparkling wines, but also regular white wines, such as this Gravel Castle Chardonnay 2020. It is a wine made entirely in stainless steel tanks and without the use of oak. The oak-free production can be smelled and tasted ... because on the nose it is definitely not a fat and barrel-heavy Chardonnay, but clearly cooler in style with a light fruit with pears, peaches, green gooseberries and melon and just a hint of a little nuts complemented by chalk and lime. But all the scents come in small amounts, very modest and almost completely neutral. On the palate, there are plenty of lemons, gooseberries and green, unripe apples, with a nice, sharp citric acidity and minerals with a little bitter lemon. On the palate, we're not talking depth, but acidity, because this is a delicate, pure and mineral Chardonnay, where all the virtues are acidity, coolness and a mineral bite. Great with an English wine and thus I land on 4.5 thumbs.