Read more about Lindway Brook Vintage Cuvée Brut 2018

Lindway Brook Vintage Cuvée Brut 2018,

International Wine Challenge Bronze Medal Winner 2021 - singled out as “Clean with yellow fruits on the nose and fresh orchard fruits on the palate” scoring 86 points.

The Terroir

From grapes grown predominantly at our Doehole Vineyard site, beautifully depicted here by local landscape artist Jenny Aitken, in a unique microclimate at about 200m above sea level on the very edge of the gritstone dome of Peak country. Our south facing vineyard, which has a unusual concave sloping topography that traps heat on hot days, also sits astride a parish boundary separating two ancient and noble parishes, Ashover and Brackenfield. 

Our site is surrounded by hills and belts of trees that diminishes the prevailing cooling winds. Our estate here is bisected by the Lindway Brook and just below our vineyard are the so-called Lindway lakes, which provide some frost protection in spring and extend the ripening season in autumn and help cool the hottest nights of summer, where the daytime temperatures here can soar, earning the vineyard the nickname ‘Hell’s Kitchen’. In cooler years the extension to the season these bodies of water provide can help to ripen the grapes, overcoming the challenges posed by our altitude. Nonetheless, not every year will provide perfect conditions and some years there will be no sparkling wine - one such year was 2020. 

Our Doehole site has an underlying geology of Millstone Grit overlain by a sandy clay loam that in places shallowly overlies the geology, or even archaeology, for this site contains evidence of old walls and buildings. The name Doehole derives from the Medieval period, when these wild slopes at the edge of the Peak were predominantly hunting forests of kings and noblemen and suggests a sheltered yet secluded place where doe deer came to fawn their young. 

Our Back Lane site, a mile from and much smaller than Doehole, overlies coal measures sandstone, famed in Derbyshire’s mining heritage as the geology where the coal bearing seams provided the fuel for the Industrial Revolution. This site is 60m lower and just that bit warmer. These clayey soils, whilst deep present challenges for viticulture but nonetheless produce and ripen high quality grapes with careful and persistent management. Each site adds interest to the blend, the Millstone Grit particularly bringing minerality to the resultant wine.

The Wine

This wine is made predominantly from Seyval Blanc, a grape that has long proved to be a key grape for producing sparkling wine in the U.K. and, on the right sites and in the right hands, can produce world class wines. We also grow Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Auxerrois (an early ripening clone of Chardonnay) and these are in this blend, accounting for around 5%. This wine is a zero dosage wine, another sign of quality.

Our aim has always been to create a uniquely Derbyshire blend for our sparkling wine and we’re very proud of the result. 

This delightful sparkler, because it is zero dosage means that the amazing fruit, the ripeness and their purity expresses itself without the need to add anything to the wine at disgorging, is a key sign of quality.

Tasting Notes 

Pale lemon colour, on the nose: fresh baked bread, orchard fruit and apple blossom. 

On the palate crisp green apple, Asian pear, grapefruit and lemon zest, baked white bread, developing towards lemon meringue and a well-rounded medium body that gives a richness and a little weight on the palate, whilst an incisive stoney minerality runs through the core. Fine dancing bubbles and a light and airy mousse round off what is an exceptional wine.

Our label art, painted by Jenny Aitken, a friend and without a doubt one of England’s most talented landscape artists and a Derbyshire resident, celebrates this unique “terroir” in a painting of Doehole vineyard titled “Harvest Light.”

Lindway Brook is limited to fewer than 500 bottles - once they’re gone they’re gone.