Limney Estate Davenport English Sparkling Wine 2015

Limney Horsmonden Davenport English Sparkling Wine, natural wine, organic English Sparkling wine, Auxerrois, Pinot Noir, Champagne style. Davenport Sparkling white, Limney estate is a delightfully fresh and lively bottle fermented wine from one of the very few genuinely natural wine makers in The UK. Will Davenport talks artisan and acts artisan. Production is small, the organic vineyards don t always produce good enough fruit to even make the wine and Will won t make it if the fruit isn’t good so the 2012 white simply didn’t happen. He is committed to quality and through natural means. He uses only the wild yeast and minimal sulphur, only 59 ml/gr of total sulphur in this wine. The vines of Auxerrois and Pinot Noir were planted in 1993 in Rotherfield and are now truly showing their potential!

At Davenport Vineyards Will Davenport has been making wines for nearly 20 years, building from a small start up to a collection of vineyard sites that total 24 acres.

The aim is to make wine of the highest quality possible and to make wine that is a true expression of their grape varieties, soil and climate of the vineyards. He believes that the best way to achieve this is by interfering as little as possible and letting nature take its course. The use of organic methods helps to bring the desired results and has the benefit of also minimising our impact on the environment. In the UK climate, even in the South East with temperate whether and warm summers, this is no mean feat, natural production does not deal well with rain. Copper and sulphur are used to control mildew, along with plant extracts made from seaweed, comfrey and nettles. Will himself is something of a nature boy, rough hewn with workers hands and a quiet intelligence. The wines he makes are some of only a few we have tasted that seem to possess a very definite English personality. He seems to be establishing the notion of 'Terroir' in the UK and the wines taste very English (in a good way). He continues to develop and sticks steadfastly to his aim to produce high quality natural English wine even when the weather is really bad!