We're very excited to be able to release the debut UK vintage of Sophie Evans!
Sophie dropped the wines to the arch herself on Friday (December 8), and we're thrilled to start the week with this news.
Production is limited and these wines will be on allocation. Please contact us as soon as possible if you’re interested.
2022 marked Sophie's return to the UK, following a couple of years as the assistant winemaker with Melanie & Michael at 2Naturkinder, jumping at the opportunity to take over a beautiful hectare of vines outside Kennington, Kent.
Summer 2022 - walking the rows of Pinot Gris with Sophie, before a quick picnic.
Farming attentively with teas, ferments, and essential oils for disease control, alongside biodynamic treatments, Sophie’s vineyard comprises Pinot Gris & Noir, alongside a small planting of the crossed varieties Bacchus & Reichesteiner, everything is grown over clay (with a little vein of chalk running through the Pinot Gris.)
Besides the main parcel, as you walk down through the woodland path to the vineyards, you first pass a smaller, older parcel co-planted with Pinot Noir, Bacchus, Pinot Gris and Reichensteiner, one Sophie assumes was planted as a test by the prior owner to see what would work well. A few years later the rest of the vines were planted, with a larger mix of the same.
Summer 2022. Sophie’s older co-planted parcel on the left with the winery at the bottom of the hill, and right - inspecting ferments for the vineyard.
In the vineyards in October 2022 on the last day of her first harvest, we witnessed Sophie in her element, surrounded by family and friends, at the end of an interesting year and the beginning of an exciting journey.
Sophie picked the older micro-parcel to co-ferment as her Electric Field blend - named for an incident with an overhead power line and a bird-scaring kite she'd tried to install to keep them away from her fruit. Fortunately, Sophie and her partner live to tell the tale (and to make the wine) despite a nasty shock!
October 2022 - Harvesting Pinot Noir
From the main vineyard, the remaining grapes: Pinot Gris and Pinot Noir - were picked to be vinified as single-variety bottlings. The main plantings of Bacchus and Reischensteiner, no more than a couple of rows in total, ultimately had to be abandoned as they fell victim to a combination of heat, hail, hungry birds and mildew. Whilst all fruit is good fruit, Sophie noted she wasn't mourning the loss of these too much, not being a huge fan of Reichensteiner and already learning the hard way at 2Naturkinder the impracticalities and weather-sensitivities of Bacchus.
She had decided early on to make each wine the same way, and in doing so has established a baseline context from which to understand her winemaking: removing variables affords the opportunity to really taste the fruit, and the vineyard. It's always beautiful to watch this practice develop over a few vintages, as you build up a clearer and clearer picture of the grower, the vineyard, and a genuine sense of place. Already these wines sing of the nearly-wild vineyard as Sophie took it on, and of the 2022 vintage.
October 2022, Pinot Noir for the home-made destemmer
Winemaking for Sophie is a combination of intuition and diligence. In 2022 she destemmed all varieties on a home-made de-stemmer (Sophie's not a fan of stemmy wine, particularly in the UK) and grapes received a generous foot stomp, then macerating in her fairly cold shed for 10-14 days with gentle punchdowns, before pressing to combinations of stainless steel and glass demijohn. The wines were hand-bottled into re-used glass 12 months later in October 2023 with a micro-dose of sulphur.
December 2023 - Labelling party with Millie & Bertie
Being her first vintage, Sophie values being able to sleep at night over some zero-sulphur badge of honour. No doubt she'll build that confidence over the years. Besides, she wants to make sure that people enjoying her wines are afforded an opportunity to watch them develop over a few days, and a little insurance towards that end feels like a very valuable goal.
The wines speak for themselves. They are a testament to Sophie's attention to detail, intuition, her sheer love for viticulture & winemaking.
It's a true privilege to be able to share them, and we hope you love them as much as we do.
Excitingly, these wines also mark several firsts besides being Sophie's first vintage in the UK: to the best of our knowledge, they are the first wines produced by a female winemaker in the UK bottled under their own name, and the first UK vintage bottled and packaged entirely in re-used glass and re-used cardboard. That's another long story though, which we'll share over the next few weeks!
Here's what we have available now from Sophie:
Limited Release - Allocation Only
SKINS
NEW 2022 - Electric Field - Pinot Gris, Pinot Noir, Bacchus, Reichensteiner
From a slightly older co-planted parcel, the field-blend is named for the incident with a bird-scaring kite and a powerline. Bright aromatics, gentle structure, great length and an electric acidity that lives up to the name. Full technical information here.
NEW 2022 - Pinot Gris
A vein of chalk runs beneath the Pinot Gris rows, and lends the wine a wonderful salty lick that strikes directly through its delicate fruit and heady aromatics. Immediate, but develops beautifully. Full technical information here.
RED
NEW 2022 - Pinot Noir
The Pinot Noir bore the brunt of 2022's challenges leading to smaller yields, but the fruit retrieved has proven beautiful. Opens with a nicely integrated reduction, quickly opening into ripe, juicy fruit and an elegant mineral line. Full technical information here.