Vintage 2019 is done and dusted - for London Cru this vintage focused on finding the fun in English grapes, exploring some new varieties and experimenting with a raft of exciting wine styles. As the weather didn’t really behave through September and October, the critical ripening phase for the vines was delayed and hampered with mildew pressure. This resulted in a difficult growing year which required us to be highly selective in the vineyards and resulted in an average decrease in yields by a factor of 50% on last year. The positive story from this drop in quantity was we brought fabulous quality fruit into the cellar and the resulting wines are looking amazing. This year we have some great surprises in our lineup - such as two new English reds and even a couple of types of bubbles!
Bacchus
At London Cru since 2017 we have focused on sourcing grapes exclusively from the UK and making wines right here in the heart of London. In this time Bacchus has formed a core component of our brand. We love its freshness, aromatics of gooseberries and elderflower, the potential for ageing and general high-quality every year. This year was no exception. We worked with two vineyards in West Sussex and Alex, our winemaker, took on the project of fermenting the two vineyards as 5 different components which he plans to bring together to produce a single Bacchus wine. A portion of the grapes were macerated for 16 hours to extract aromatics and texture, whilst the majority was whole-bunch pressed and fermented with a number of different yeasts and temperatures. Last year our Roberson team loved the quality of the Bacchus aged in oak barrels, so this vintage we increased this percentage fermented and aged in oak barrels to just over 20%. This adds body and texture to the wine, builds the mid-palate and adds aromatics from ageing on the wine lees. As it stands this wine has finished alcoholic fermentation and will not go through malolactic fermentation. The taste is exactly where we want it - the gooseberry and passion-fruit aromatics are on point and the palate has mouth-watering zesty acidity and great length. This Bacchus will be bottled in March next year.
Pinot Meunier Bubbles
This year we are also trying our hand at making a traditional method English sparkling wine. Inspired after working at Gusbourne last year, Alex is excited to produce a Blanc de Noir made from 100% Pinot Meunier grapes. As it turned out these were the grapes of the vintage, superb quality and the last to arrive in the cellar from Canterbury in late October. The Meunier was whole bunch pressed and is still going through primary fermentation. This wine is destined to go through malolactic fermentation this month and will be bottled early in the new year. This wine is already shining with citrus, tropical fruits aromatics and perfect crisp acidity. Patience is the key with traditional method sparkling wine, but the excitement is building for this one! Quality English bubbles made right here in London!
English reds
When Alex took over the helm at London Cru he was excited to test the potential of high-quality English red wines. After months of research, tastings, and chats with growers, we decided to throw our hat in the ring with two genuine London Cru firsts.
Pinot Noir Précoce
Pinot Noir Précoce (Frühburgunder in Germany) is an earlier ripening mutation of Pinot Noir which has proven itself to be a serious contender for producing exciting quality wine in the UK. This year we worked with a tiny 1ha vineyard near Chichester. The soils are amazing with large chunks of grey flint floating on loam and resulted in the ripest grapes of the vintage. Not only were they ripe, but the pretty little bunches of Précoce were also the first to be harvested and a delight to work with. This fruit was destemmed and then fermented in 4 separate vessels, 3 small stainless tanks and an open-top barrel. The grapes were gently punched down by hand every day and pressed off early to achieve a moreish easy-drinking “vins de soif”. This wine has now finished malolactic fermentation and will be barrel aged for 9 months before release. Bright aromatics of red strawberry and cherry, very well-balanced acidity and on-point tannin structure. This wine is going to be a very small release, but a truly wonderful easy drinking example of English Pinot Noir.
Cabernet Noir
The other red grape for the vintage was the guilty pleasure of our winemaker Alex. He has a love of Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley and after tasting a few examples of Cabernet Noir (a Swiss variety) the parallels were obvious. A few tonnes of this grape found its way into the cellar late in the vintage. Cabernet Noir naturally ignores these rainy pressures and mildew pressures with ease and most importantly almost no chemicals are needed in the vineyard. True to its nature these grapes arrived in the cellar clean as a whistle, little black jewels, the bunches were loose and the berries were tiny with firm skins. The bunches were 100% destemmed and not crushed. These berries were then fermented semi-carbonic and then gently punched down manually morning and night. The resulting wine has complex red fruits counterbalanced with spicy black pepper and hints of red capsicum in the palate. This wine will now be aged in second use 300L French barrels which will round out the texture and contribute some oak character to the wine. This Cab Noir is still bubbling away in barrel due to malolactic fermentation and will continue to be aged in the barrels for 9 months. This is an English red wine with real presence and personality.
Pinot Gris Pet-Nat
Finally, this year we had a small quantity of Pinot Gris. This wine is destined for a Pet-Nat (Pétillant Naturel) and will round out our exciting 2019 vintage offerings. From the same small vineyard as our Pinot Noir Précoce we had a very small allotment of Gris which was perfectly suited to some cheeky bubbles. With bright aromatics of pineapple and citrus this wine will be bottled later this week once the natural sugar levels hit the targeted 12g/L. This yeast will then continue fermentation under crown cap in the bottle and the natural CO2 released will result is a delightful light spritz (around half that of a traditional method sparkling). This wine will not be disgorged and is served deliciously cloudy with the fermentation yeast contributing to the mouthfeel and flavour. A super fun and lively wine that will be released early next year.
Winery Tour
Finally, if you would like to learn more about how these wines were made why not join us on one of our regular tours. Bookings can be made at Roberson Wine and is as easy walk from West Brompton train station.
Mail List
This year our production is diverse, but also very limited. If you want to ensure you have the best chance of tasting these wines at release make sure you join our mailing list below. These lucky campers will receive the first release offers.