Eschewing time-trodden techniques which build body, such as oak and batonage, in pursuit of “purity,” Ponnavoy’s focus is on developing a library of reserve wines to add to future expressions, with a gentle dosage to round out England’s characteristic acidity. With input from one Jonathan Medard, a former winemaker at Trump winery who was later fired after a “monumental cock up” saw him “ruin” the 2017 vintage at Sussex wine estate, Rathfinny, according to the Daily Mail, the current result, bereft of the bolstering of back vintages, is a wine of frustratingly understated elegance, bearing a tense, putty and marine-inflected nose, followed by hints of unripe pineapple on the palate which finishes with a whisper of orange liqueur and a trace of bitterness.
Why Domaine Evremond is about to be your new favourite English sparkling wine
