2013 Digby Fine English Blanc de Blancs Brut
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This is the first Blanc de Blancs released by Digby, from the 2013 vintage – the same year that the project launched onto the English wine scene. From a cool vintage, the fruit was sourced from two vineyards – one in Hampshire and the other in Dorset, with around a quarter of the wine fermented in oak. This was made under Dermot Sugrue – one of the most famous names in English wine – and disgorged in April 2023 (dosage 6.5g/l), spending almost a decade on lees. The result is a seriously impressive sparkling wine – and even more so for the price. The nose speaks of its long ageing, with yeasty, leesy tones alongside lemon curd and sweeter honeysuckle. The palate is vivid – bright with greengage, green apple and lemon built around a core of mouthwatering acidity. Creamy textured, pillowy soft, it’s long and saline with hints of biscuity richness and a pure mineral note on the finish. A serious wine that is drinking beautifully now.
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Anne Krebiehl MW, Vinous
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Full bottle 1,603 g. 59% Chardonnay from Hampshire, 41% Chardonnay from Dorset. Base wines are fermented in stainless steel (73%) and French oak (27%). Eight years sur lattes. Dosage 6.5 g/l. All the flavours of a key-lime pie on a toasty crispy base. But more. Roasted buckwheat, nigella flowers, lime zest and kiwi fruit. Fragrant, floral and also lovely depth of fruit within a kind of hippy-café-wholesome framework of flavours. Lacy bubbles. Bright, crystalline and luminous. (TC)
The 2013 Brut Blanc de Blancs, made from Hampshire and Dorset fruit grown on greensand and clay, was fermented mainly in stainless steel with some oak and partial malolactic fermentation. This is the rst Blanc de Blancs released by Digby—and what a wine it is. After spending nine years on lees, the wine oers a nose of oatmeal, lemon and dried corn husk. Its straw gold color indicates some age, yet the nose remains dew fresh. The palate is beautifully salty and intense, elegant and bright, with a scent of crisp yellow apple, lemony smoothness and salty shortcrust pastry tones. Superbly tiny bubbles lend a sense of creaminess and intensify these gorgeous avors. This is simply wonderful with much more mileage ahead. Disgorged: April 2023.
Their first Blanc de Blancs, all Chardonnay grown on greensand, released at 10 years old. My bottle was disgorged on 5 August 2023 according to a scribble on the back label. Their 2013 Vintage Reserve Brut was named Supreme Champion at the 2023 Wine GB awards. Pale gold. Very marked autolysis on the nose. I'd say the nose is its most compelling attribute. It's not that persistent, though of course has fine acidity on the palate which finishes dry. Appetising but not seductive. But perhaps it will blossom? (JR)