Two rare but brilliant English sparkling wines from Fox & Fox

published 5 June 2020

2015 Fox & Fox, Mayfield, Essence Pure Chardonnay Brut

I met Gerard Fox five or six years ago at a tasting. He mentioned that he and his wife Jonica had got into the wine game, back in 2004, by planting some vines, and that they were pretty happy with their early releases. I tasted their 2011 Mayfield, Essence Blanc de Blancs, back in 2016 and also their 2013 Mayfield Tradition Blanc de Noirs, in 2018, and wrote up both in my column for the Daily Mail.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Each Fox & Fox release is tiny, a thousand bottles here and a thousand bottles there. Since the early days, the vines are finding their feet and two new releases are worthy of extremely high praise.

The 2015 Essence is sublime and it grows on the palate into a lovely crisp apple and lemon balm cocktail. It is a perfect paean to the great chardonnay grape. A slimline creature, with only 12% alcohol, it wears a generous 11.5g/L dosage, so this is a slender, but curvaceous wine. With superb class throughout, the nose starts quietly and it expands and relaxes into a delicious and thoroughly moreish creation.

In addition, 2014 Fox & Fox, Mayfield, CV Chairman’s Vat Brut (£40, foxandfox.wine; £39.99, thebritishwinecellar.co.uk) is a tighter, more energetic and less louche number with only 8.5g/L dosage, and it is a blend of pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot gris. Dry, layered and intellectually stimulating, it is a brilliant wine with chalky, sour acidity on the finish and lush fruit throughout.

• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (matthewjukes.com)

Explore More

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.