TITCH HILL - ALEX TRISTRAM & SAM BUNKER
ENGLAND, SOUTH EAST, SUSSEX
Following much anticipation, we're so pleased to finally have available the debut vintage from Alex & Sam at Titch Hill! Less than 10km from the sea, they work to organic principles on the chalk of the South Downs, producing wines with a true sense of place.
Their first vintage is a joyful collection produced primarily from the 3.5 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinots Noir & Meunier planted in 2019, all made with no additions. The wines are properly delicious, immediate and dynamic, with a complexity that belies the youth of both the vines and the project.
WILD COMBINATION is their pet-nat of Regent, Rondo, Pinot Noir & Chardonnay, with as much spring in its step as the Arthur Russell song it shares a name with. AMBIENT is a saline, vibrant Chardonnay macerated on the skins for a week, pressed slowly and oxidatively - a thing of beauty. FIELDWORK is a precision-bomb of little berries clinging to the finest frame of tannin, Pinots Meunier & Noir really enjoying their time in the chalk. DEMESNE is picked from their most established vineyard, a single parcel of Pinot Noir & Meunier, hand de-stemmed, with 3 weeks of maceration and aged for 6 months in an old barrel - dark fruited and supple.
We've been excited to get these out into the wider world ever since we tried them, and are looking forward to seeing where they end up! More info on the wines and the project below:
Titch Hill is the project of Alex Tristram and Sam Bunker, who met while studying winemaking at Plumpton in 2017. The vines are planted on a farm that has been in Alex's family for generations, with his uncle taking a keen interest in environmental restoration and the damage done across the UK by post-war industrial farming.
Finishing Plumpton, Alex returned home to begin the winemaking project, with Sam - who grew up nearby - soon joined him as his collaborator. Alex & Sam look after the vines, themselves part of a wider, holistic, organism that also includes livestock, arable wheat & barley, with sheep grazing in the vineyards through winter.
In organic conversion but soon to be certified, they planted 3.5 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir & Pinot Meunier in 2019. In the last couple of years, they have also planted 4 hectares of 12 different PIWI's - all with a view to completely reducing their input, allowing more time to focus on soil health and diversity. They will begin to treat the vines only with herbal, plant teas with fungicidal properties. So far the only other inputs have been minimal amounts of copper and sulphur.
On the high chalk of the South Downs, the coastal influence is immediately apparent - they are perhaps one of the closest vineyards to the sea in the UK - and work in the winery is as minimal as possible to allow the fruit to speak for itself, they are strictly no additions.
It's a thrill to have them joining the family, another shining example of proactive, sustainable agriculture in the UK and excellent, gleeful winemaking.
AVAILABLE NOW
SPARKLING
NEW 2022 - Wild Combination - Regent, Rondo, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay
SKINS
NEW 2022 - Ambient - Chardonnay
RED
NEW 2022 - Fieldwork - Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir
NEW 2022 - Demesne - Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier
FOR WHOLESALE ENQUIRIES: HELLO@WINESUTB.COM
To learn more about the project directly head to Alex & Sam’s website: https://www.titchhill.com/