2018 Sugrue Ex Machina Rose
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Tasting notes
The 2018 Brut Rosé Ex Machina is a blend of 70% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier and 10% Chardonnay, grown in the Coldharbour Vineyard in West Sussex on chalk mixed with clay and flint. Base wines are made in stainless steel and the pink color is derived from a 20% addition of Pinot Noir vinified as red wine. Smoky, tart plum fruit seems to swim in melted candlewax on the nose, projecting depth and aroma at once. The palate is smooth, rounded, plump with fruit but slender in body. This core of red fruit is salty, smooth, ripe and utterly seductive. The finish is absolutely enticing and endless. How gorgeous. Dosage is 8 grams per liter. Disgorged: April 2024.
Critic scores
Average Score
Tamlyn Currin, jancisrobinson.com
Jancis Robinson MW
More reviews and scores
Served at the end of a lunch at the winery cooked by Angela Hartnett and her husband Neil Borthwick with rum baba, vanilla cream and soaked raisins. From the 7.35-ha Coldharbour vineyard in West Sussex inland from Arundel and originally planted in 2005 by Nyetimber on chalk with clay and flint. Ana and Dermot Sugrue are thrilled to manage this vineyard. Sustainably farmed. 70% Pinot Noir, 20% Meunier, 10% Chardonnay. No malo. 20% still red Pinot Noir. Dosage 8 g/l when it was first disgorged in April 2024. Deliciously fruity and seductive with perfect fruit/acid balance and fully mature from this super-ripe vintage. (JR)
Full bottle 1,604 g. From a 7.35-ha site called Cold Harbour vineyard, planted in 2005. Sustainably farmed. 70% Pinot Noir, 20% Meunier, 10% Chardonnay. Ana and Dermot Sugrue's new release. Deep, shining, copper-coral colour. It looks like sunrise on a crisp, clear-as-a-bell autumn morning. It tastes like sunrise on a crisp, clear-as-a-bell autumn morning. The tiny bubbles are like a shower of dewdrop diamonds, which seem to turn ruby-gemstone red as they meet the sweet flood of rose hip, red apple and clementine. And then it pixelates on the tongue, crystalline acidity and exquisitely precise fruit in a kaleidoscopic collision of dazzling dimensions. Breath-taking, spine-tingling purity shot forward, arrow-like, by acidity that tastes of blood oranges. A wine to watch the sun rise with … (TC)
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.