Tillington Single Vineyard 2010

Nyetimber, producer of England’s finest sparkling wine, has today announced the launch of its second Tillington Single Vineyard vintage, available from Harrods, Farr Vintners and Lay and Wheeler from £75.00.

Made from a blend of 78% Pinot Noir and 22% Chardonnay, Tillington is the first Single Vineyard sparkling wine from England with all grapes specially selected from a single vineyard site and underlines the producer’s uncompromising attention to detail and flavour. Only 4,117 bottles of the Tillington 2010 have been created and each bottle is individually numbered.

Nyetimber was the first producer of English sparkling wine to exclusively grow the three celebrated grape varieties: Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay, and is now known for owning the finest sites in British viticulture, including Tillington in West Sussex. The Tillington story began in 2009 when head winemaker Cherie Spriggs discovered an extraordinary parcel of Pinot Noir at the site with a fantastic fruit character. This parcel is then blended with specially selected Chardonnay grapes – also exclusively from Tillington – which add elegance and finesse to the wine. The 2010 vintage is pale gold in colour, with gentle, fine bubbles that fill the nose with aromas of redcurrant, wild raspberry and toast. On the palate, the wine shows great elegance and complexity, balancing rich notes of almond and brioche with a fine minerality and a long, persistent finish.

Spriggs comments: ‘Since first tasting the fruit at Tillington in 2009, there’s been something really magical – quite exceptional – about this one particular parcel of Pinot Noir. The wonderful flavours that we’d tasted in 2009 were again present in the fruit during the 2010 harvest, and I simply had to share these by making a second vintage of this very special wine.’