2016 Sugrue Ex Machina Rose
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Tasting notes
This is the first rosé that star winemaker Dermot Sugrue has produced at Sugrue South Downs. A blend of 50% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier and 30% Chardonnay, the fruit comes from vines in Hampshire planted in 2004. The spring frosts of 2016 reduced yields drastically, so just 4,500 bottles and 200 magnums were produced. The colour comes from 20% still Pinot Noir that is blended in. It was aged for four years on lees, with no oak or malolactic fermentation, and a dosage of 9g/l.
Critic scores
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
More reviews and scores
Unusually deep tomato-flesh pink. Pretty explosive! The intensity of this wine is like a shock that tears your heart in two. A jolt of electricity. At first, it's just the raw shock. The fractal acidity. A bullet. The taste of blood. Then it spins slowly on its axis, angular, piercing, stellated symmetry. Chiselled strawberry, glaciated redcurrant, iodine-stained rose petals, a whip-crack of sumac-sharp spice. The bubbles are bold, tight on the draw, loose-laced on the retreat. The finish is salty, defiant, howling at convention, and if that dosage wasn't written on the back label, I'd have told you this was Brut Zero. A wine that needs to be taken seriously, paired with serious food, interrogated. More than anything else, don't serve this refractory maverick too cold. Full bottle with box 1,687 g. Grapes came from Jenkyn Place Vineyard. 50% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Meunier from a single vineyard in Hampshire on greensand and fractured chalk, planted in 2004. Wine aged in stainless steel. Dosage 9 g/l.
About the producer
As English sparkling wine breaks out onto the world’s stage, a few names already come to mind as beacons of quality and know-how. Dermot Sugrue’s eponymous label leads the charge.