Wimbledon in a glass: the oh so english wines of Camel Valley

Last week I attended one of seven “Best of English Meet the Winemaker” series of tasting dinners being promoted at Artisan and Vine in conjunction with DrinkBritain, this one focused on the wines of leading Cornish producer Camel Valley.

Early success

Founded by ex-RAF pilot Bob Lindo and his wife Annie, they planted their first eight thousand vines in 1989 at their farm in Cornwall where, they say, “each summer they watched the grass turn brown on the sun-drenched slopes of the Camel Valley, and wondered if vines might enjoy such an aspect.” 

How right they were.  The couple won a medal in the national English Wine competition for their very first wine and, in 2002, won the Waitrose Drinks Producer of the Year Award. 

Joined by their son Sam in 2005, Camel Valley has gone on to win awards for the best sparkling rosé and best traditional method sparkling wine in the world no less than three times in addition to numerous other awards (check out the brag sheet here).  

Lindo (pictured) himself has just won the McAlpine Trophy for Winemaker of the Year at The English & Welsh Wine of the Year Competition 2011 for the third consecutive year, and now fourth time in five years.

I reckon the sun glancing off the Lindo’s packed trophy cabinet ramps up the sunshine factor at Camel Valley.  At any rate, their Pinot Noir rosés still and sparkling showed beautiful and thoroughly beguiling strawberry fruit.  Jacob’s Creek may be the official wine sponsors for Wimbledon, but my vote goes to Camel Valley!

A word from the winemaker, Sam Lindo

And English strawberries have inspired Lindo.  As he points out they have more flavour than those from warmer Spanish climes and, similarly, with English wine, our relatively cold, slow ripening climate produces a unique juicy, mouthwatering acidity which “brings the fruit alive.”

It also accounts for their pale hue and lower alcohol which he describes as “a weightlessness” – the polar opposite of what was fashionable when his dad started out in 1992. Attributing this “weightlessness” to the fact that, at harvest, “sugar and acid is OK, but flavours are always underripe,” he happily observes, “it just so happens that underripe flavours are really nice.” 

Because of this underripeness, the (bone dry) table wines are chaptalised, that is to say sugar is added during the fermentation process to increase the wine’s alcohol by volume by up to 3% (the legal limit in Europe).  Lindo says, in his experience, a wine with 12.5% alcohol is always better than a wine with 11.5% “because it’s alcohol and sugar that tastes nice,”  which is why, he posits, no-one ever ordered a second bottle of Kaliber (the Guinness-owned alcohol-free beer which never took off)!

The tasting

NB Prices are by the bottle and taken from Camel Valley’s online shop here; a case discount is available. 

2009 Camel Valley ‘Cornwall’ Brut (Seyval Blanc & Reichensteiner) – pale, with a fine bead and attractive bright lemony nose and palate, it’s crisp like good “short” pastry with a lively lemon sherbert character to its linear finish.  Very good and focused on fruit intensity rather than autolytic notes, Lindo explained given our much cooler climate he’s not trying to make Champagne (apparently the english harvest can lag as much as 6 weeks behind Champagne).  8.9g/l TA (Total Acidity) 12g/l RS (residual sugar), pH 3.03, ABV 12.5%, chaptalised amount 2.5%.  £19.95

2010 Camel Valley Darnibole Bacchus – this wine is named after the Darnibole field from which it hails.  With its ancient slate bedrock, Lindo says the markedly different (weightier) character of the Bacchus from Darnibole persuaded him that terroir is not just a marketing thing and winemaking not just about science. Indeed.  The Bacchus grape variety is often compared to Sauvignon Blanc and with its flinty, curry powder notes (both of which I associate with silex soils in Sancerre and Pouilly Fumé), this wine bears more than a passing resemblance to some top Loire Sauvignons, albiet in a leaner style.   It shows subtly earthy, pungent notes on the nose which follow through on the palate together with leafy blackcurrant bud and elderflower hints as it warms up in the glass.  With good acid drive, it has a purity and persistence to its mineral, stony finish. Very good.  It worked well with my al dente fresh green asparagus, but was out-gunned by the smoked mozzarella.  7.9g/l TA (Total Acidity) 0g/l RS (residual sugar), pH 3.4, ABV 12%, chaptalised amount 3%.  £14.95

2010 Camel Valley Bacchus – a little reduced on the nose and palate with a rubbery edge to its bone dry, very crisp, stony palate.  Not showing well.  Paired with Sicilian octopus, fregola and Jersey tomatoes – very tender and delicious – which went well with the more concentrated, expressive Darnibole. 6.5g/l TA (Total Acidity) 0g/l RS (residual sugar), pH 3.26, ABV 12.8%, chaptalised amount 1.5%.  £12.95

2009 Camel Valley Rosé  – this is a blend of 66% Pinot Noir and 33% Dornfelder.  Lindo contends rosé is “the best way to taste what Pinot Noir tastes like in this country…it’s what the grapes taste like when we get them.”  And to come back to his strawberry analogy, this pale salmon wine most definitely has the flavour intensity of English strawberries. Though svelte, creamy even, its sweet and seductive wild strawberry and ripe red cherry fruit is bright – in high definition – thanks to fresh acidity.  Very good indeed, with just the merest hint of leaf that serves only to emphasise its delicious fruit.   £11.95

An outstanding rosé and, as Lindo points out a key wine in the portfolio because “it is absolutely imperative to make both still and sparkling as both types are in effect by-products of maintaining quality for each other.” (Free run juice from the Pinot Noir component of this wine is reserved for the delicate sparkling Pinot Noir rosé, while more deeply coloured, flavoursome pressings go into this wine which, according to Lindo, ages really well).  For meat eaters, it was paired with duck, cherries and broad beans, while I enjoyed a summery frittata, an OK match.  7.1g/l TA (Total Acidity) 4g/l RS (residual sugar), pH 3.32, ABV 12%, chaptalised amount 1%.

2009 Camel Valley Annie’s Anniversary Sparkling wine  – made from 100% Seyval Blanc, hand harvested by Lindo’s mum after whom it’s named, this gold medal winning maiden cuvee will be released in 2012 fto mark Camel Valley’s 20^th anniversary.  Lindo reckons the UK doesn’t need Champagne varieties to make great sparkling wine.  From 20 year old vines, Annie’s shows an attractive purity of waxy lemons and pink grapefruit animated by a lively mousse.  Like the  Cornwall Brut it has a sherbet lemon finish and is very fruit focused and primary now.  Given the concentration of fruit here wed to a fine, tight spine of acidity,  it’ll be interesting to see how it develops with age – I’d like to see a little more layer and complexity (or am I bringing my expectations of Champagne to the table?)  8.5g/l TA (Total Acidity) 12g/l RS (residual sugar), pH 3, ABV 12.5%, chaptalised amount 2%.

2009 Camel Valley ‘Cornwall’ Pinot Noir Rosé Brut – the show stopping 2008 vintage (which I’ve not tasted) picked up world’s best sparkling rosé at two international competitions.  The 09 is no slouch.  It shows delicate yet intense strawberry, red cherry and cranberry notes on a long, lingering, fine beaded and boned palate with enough “sweetness” to pair extremely well with English (of course) strawberries, peppermint and pannacotta.  A great finale!  8.5g/l TA (Total Acidity) 11g/l RS (residual sugar), pH 3.09 ABV 12.5%, chaptalised amount 1%.  £24.95

Reflections

I can’t claim much experience of tasting English wines.  Partly because the last English wine tasting I attended (some years back to be fair) included way too many DNPIM (do not put in mouth) still wines.  But this was a watershed tasting for me thanks to the impressive consistency of quality, purity and finesse of the Camel Valley range. 

And I enjoyed the fact that they were distinctly English – pale and interesting or to use Lindo’s phrase, “weightless.” It’s a quality which more than lends itself to matching the wines with food – as with other bone dry, high acidity wines, I think they perform best as either an aperitif or with food.

I reckon it’s also worth thinking about this high acid factor when it comes to glassware. As fellow taster Thirst for Wine’s Robert McIntosh pointed out, standard ISO tasting glasses’ narrow aperture tended to “funnel” the wine, emphasising their acidity and linearity.  Though Lindo says, having done lots of side by side trials for still wines, ISOs give the aroma much more volume and power, I wondered if a glass like Reidel’s Rheingau which was created for young, fruity, acidic, dry, light white wines would better accentuate the fruit and temper the acidity – time for a spot of my own “homework!”