The Grange CLASSIC NV

Description

This iteration of the CLASSIC NV is made predominantly with grapes from 2019, the sixth harvest from the Burge's Field vineyard, and is the 10th wine from the much-garlanded team at Hattingley Valley, led by Emma Rice and Jacob Leadley.

Hand-picked and bunch pressed in late October and early November, at the end of a roller coaster of a year, this was a wine that went against the grain. 90% of the juice was fermented in stainless steel tanks with the remainder in a variety of very neutral fourth fill oak barrels tp add texture rather than anything too much in the way of flavours. Just 32% of the final base wines went through malolactic fermentation thanks to the fairly gentle acidity shown by the fruit this year. We started blending with 13 base wines and 2400l of the continuing solera reserve a 14th.  As is our wont, having created the PINK and a WHITE FROM BLACK we threw everything that was left in to the bend and BINGO! It was entirely recognisable as a Grange CLASSIC. We fiddled around a bit with varying degrees of the reserve and it ended up comprising 20% of the blend and gives some aged heft to the mid-palate and some length to the finish.  The final blend was 33% Chardonnay, 29% Pinot Noir and 18% Pinot Meunier from the 2019 fruit with the reserve contributing a good 10% extra Chardonnay and an even split of Noir and Meunier.  Secondary fermentation in bottle was followed by 32 months ageing on lees before the wine was disgorged in January 2023 and dosed to around 9g/l with 12% alcohol by volume.

This wine is a stunning sequel to the previous CLASSICs and, with the high reserve percentage element, has a stateliness and fullness that makes it one of our favourites... It's a taste of Burge's Field through the years!

Tasting Notes

Pale straw in colour, with an intense nose of ripe orchard fruits and citrus peel, surrounded by notes of toasted and buttered patisserie.

Crunchy, bright and fresh on the palate, with apples and citrus fruit at the fore. Dissipating slowly, resulting in a long and pleasing finish.

Pairs well with

We drink the CLASSIC as an aperitif and enjoy it with:

• fine, buttery slices of iberico ham
• rich, smoked fish
• oysters
• ROKA cheese crispies