Move fast to snap up this ethereal English red

This is the most remarkable English pinot noir I have ever tasted, says Matthew Jukes.

Matthew Jukes
By
published
in Features

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2015 Gusbourne, Pinot Noir, Boot Hill Vineyard, Kent, England (£24.95, Gusbourne, 01233-758666).

I tasted this wine back in early May and have waited patiently for over two months for its release. This column is the global scoop for this wine, too, because as I pen this in the first week of July, it has still yet to be delivered to Berry Bros & Rudd's cellars and its maker, fizz specialists Gusbourne, has yet to list it on their website.

By the date of publication, I trust that the bottles are in place and so you must strike immediately because this is a very small production wine. No less than 50% of the crop was sacrificed in the great 2015 vintage to concentrate the flavours in these berries, and with a cool August this meant that the grapes were harvested late in the season in early October.

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This long hang time meant that the fruit is packed with intensity and complexity of flavour and I can, hand on heart, say that this is the most remarkable English pinot noir I have ever tasted. Gentle use of French oak (six months in 20% new barrels, 80% older oak) and a low 12% alcohol make this a fabulous, perfumed and energetic red wine with a slender framework and a truly ethereal flavour. Feast your palates on this genuine game-changer.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes
Matthew Jukes

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.  

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’.  He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner. 

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy.  His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.

 

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