Domaine Evremond - Where Champagne meets English Sparkling Wine

This week marks the release of the inaugural Classic Cuvée from Domaine Evremond. Purchased by Taittinger in 2014, the Kent estate is the first UK winery to be majority owned and operated by a Grande Marque. However, judging by the success of their first wine, it will likely not be the last.

This storied Champagne house, famous for its Comtes de Champagne cuvée, had been on the hunt for great terroir outside Champagne for some years, with the UK high on the agenda. True to their exacting standards, the Champenoise had very strict criteria for what would comprise a perfect site. First, like the best sites in Champagne, it had to be on chalk soils. Second, it had to be south facing, under 100m in altitude and relatively protected from the elements, as the UK climate is still marginal for grape growing. In 2014, they and their intrepid British partner, Patrick McGrath MW, found the perfect place - A fruit farm in Chilham, Kent, that had highly suitable orchard land which could be converted. The project was launched in 2015 and the first vineyards were planted in 2017, yielding fledgling fruit in 2019, and a full crop in 2020.

The first edition of Classic Cuvée comprises a blend of 55% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and10% Meunier, with a dosage of 7g/L. The wine was fermented and matured entirely in stainless steel vats and underwent malolactic fermentation. The base vintage is 80% from 2020 alongside 20% from 2019, which was blended and bottled in the spring of 2021. Having then spent over three years gently maturing on its lees, it was disgorged at the end of August 2024 ahead of this first release.

The flavours transport you simultaneously to Champagne and their Kent orchard farm. There is a poise and clarity to the wine; clearly expertise and sparkling wine know-how are at work here. However, it also bursts with orchard fruits – green apple, quince and just-ripe conference pear. Lemon sherbet on the palate scintillates the tastebuds as does the beautifully fine-textured mousse. The chalk is very apparent, the terroir shining straight through, but where Champagne is pure white chalk, this has flecks of flinty minerality as well. Just the slightest hint of wild strawberry and cherry skin poke though on the finish, subsumed by oyster shell and flaky pastry coated with fresh cream.

This wine feels like a hybrid between Champagne and English Sparkling. It has all the skill and craft for which Taittinger are known, but with the beautiful British summer fruit profile the ‘Garden of England’ is capable of producing.