Langham Culver N.V.

Rose-gold showing a touch of pinot colour, this blend based on the 2020 vintage, bottled in June 2020 and disgorged in April 2023, is bright and fresh with a delightful complexity of invitingly rich and yeasty-toasty aromas; intense fruit flavours are buoyed by a superfine mousse, every tiny bubble seemingly carrying loads of flavour in the ripe yellow plum and peach spectrum with background toasty notes as they dissolve, all too soon, on the tongue and lead to a fine dry finish. Look out Champagne!

Dorset estate-grown fruit. 65% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Meunier. Mostly based on 2020. Spontaneous fermentation in a mix of vessels. Dosage 3 g/l, disgorged January 2023. Very different nose from the Corallian tasted just before. Cherry, stollen, marzipan. The palate has a golden-ness, a glow; nuts and autumn leaves steeped in nectarine juice and finished with an addictively bitter-sour-snap of apple and pear and lemon. Very tense on the finish. Tense and salty. Moreish! Also VGV. Drink 2024-2028.