Great English wines for the holidays recommended by Sam Weatherill, award-winning sommelier at Etch
The holidays are the perfect excuse to dive into England’s flourishing wines, and who better to give recommendations than Sam Weatherill, the award-winning sommelier and restaurant manager at etch. by Steven Edwards in Brighton and Hove. Whether you’re searching for sultry reds, lighter whites and everything in between, Weatherill will direct you to the best pairings for dinners and gatherings.
Interviewed by Daniela Toporek
Feature photo from Instagram: @stevenxedwards
Reds
Diamond Fields Pinot Noir | Davenport | 2022 – £21
“Will Davenport first planted vines in the Sussex and Kent border in 1991, and makes one of the best Pinot Noir’s in the country. This wine features redcurrant and raspberry with a touch of spice and tannin to enrich the character of the wine.”
Pair with: the Turkey main course
Cabaret Noir | Artelium | 2023 – £31.50
“Artelium is based near Ditching, and this limited production red is made from Cabaret Noir, a disease-resistant hybrid variety well-suited for the UK’s cool climate. The wine is a cornucopia of juicy plum and blackberry fruit with a touch of cedar spice from the use of American oak. Despite this rich-sounding profile, it’s still super fresh and only clocks in at 12%.”
Pair with: Meat and/or salty, hard cheese
Pinot Noir | Danbury Ridge | 2022 – £44
“Danbury Ridge is on its way to becoming the most acclaimed producer of still wine in the UK, partially thanks to its location in Essex, the hottest and driest region in the country. It’s a silky, ethereal expression of Pinot Noir with a delicate strawberry character at its core. It’s backed by a generous touch of very expensive-smelling oak, imparting a real festive spice quality to the wine.”
Pair with: Turkey, goose, duck and a nut roast
Whites
Blanc de Blancs | Tickerage | 2015 – £44
“Anthony and Zena Budd run a small project near Uckfield in Sussex, and this wine is an absolute gem in their line-up. It’s 100% Chardonnay, and eight years resting on lees (dead yeast cells and other particles at the bottom of a winemaking vessel after fermentation) gives the wine a breathtaking intensity of lemon zest and thyme with a honey and caramelised apple richness.”
Pair with: seafood, salty cheeses and lemon chicken
Organic Bacchus Ortega | Natalia Harris | 2023 – £29
“Natalia Harris is based near Hastings and crafts this beautiful, singular expressive still wine teeming with elderflower, peach, and a saline grapefruit zing. It’s a perfect Boxing Day white as it can cut through and stand up to all the meats in a Christmas leftover sandwich.”
Pair with: prawn cocktail, roast ham
Chardonnay | Oxney Estate | 2022 – £25
“Oxney is one of the few certified organic producers in the country, and this Chardonnay delivers. It’s fresh and clean, with bright lime zest and pear fruit, alongside a salinity and touch of butter and yoghurt character from the time it spends in French Oaks.”
Pair with: Turkey and/or Brie and Camembert
Rosés
Rosé de Saignee | Everflyht | 2020 – £45
“Everflyht is a project based near Ditchling that focuses on regenerative agriculture and biodiversity. The Saignee method involves ‘bleeding’ colour from the grape skins, rather than mixing red and white wines, which surprisingly, is the norm for traditional method sparkling wines. This is a gorgeous combination of fresh raspberry, cherry, and creamy brioche.”
Pair with: game, lobster, crab, rare lamb, and succulent roast pork.
Sounder Pinot Noir Pink | Beare Green Winery | 2023 – £22.50 www.bearegreenwinery.com
“A slightly funky and savoury style of rosé with a core of juicy raspberry fruit enhanced by a touch of smoky flint and savoury spice quality.”
Pair: between fish and meat courses
Rosé | Tillingham – £25
“A dangerously quaffable rosé from Tillingham, based near Rye in East Sussex, is salmon pink in colour with an abundance of summer fruits and delicate rose petal character, with crunchy cranberry and herbal spice.”
Pair with: smoked salmon and tangy goat cheese
Oranges
“Orange wines are very diverse in terms of food matching and can work with everything across the day, from prawn cocktail starters to game meats, and pungent cheeses.”
Ortega Skin Contact | Westwell | 2023 – £27
“Adrian Pike’s Kent-based Westwell may just be the most dynamic and exciting winery in the country. Their infamous skin contact Ortega spends two weeks on skins before ageing in a mixture of steel and old Burgundy barrels for six months. The result is a wild explosion of apricot, clementine leaf, and honeysuckle with the perfect combination of freshness and texture.”
Pair with: game meats or pungent washed-rind styles of cheese
Skin Contact Pinot Gris | Tillingham | 2022 – £33.50
“A vibrant amber coloured wine with a typical pinot gris richness that gives bergamot, orange peel and fresh lime characters, alongside a touch of cassia and pomegranate. Really great with anything that you might usually pair a touch of orange or citrus with.”
Pair with: Prawn cocktail starters, game meats, pungent cheeses (or roasted goose/duck if you’re feeling fancy)
Don’t Feed the Ponies Oddy | Sandridge Barton | 2020 – £22 www.shop.sandridgebarton.com
“Made from the lesser seen Madeleine Angevine grape, fermented on skins for 3 weeks using indigenous yeasts, before two years ageing under cork. Dried sweetness, honeysuckle and clementine leaf aromas alongside a bit of grip from the tannins make this a great option for charcuterie and punchy cheeses. A very exciting project based near to Dartmoor in Devon.”
Pair with: charcuterie and punchy cheeses
Dessert
“There are a few sweeter styles of English wine, but they’re often pricey and don’t have the intensity to match classic Christmas desserts like chocolate yule logs and Christmas pudding. The wines listed below are all delicious in their own right. Not all are super sweet, but they have enough sugar to make them a better match with sweet foods than dry wines.”
Nyetimber Demi-Sec | NV – £42.50
“With just under 40g of sugar per litre, this slightly sweeter style of traditional-method fizz is 100% Chardonnay grown across the South Downs. The wine still has that classic bracing English acidity, which, alongside a subtle, toasty character from the ageing process, and the sweetness of the dosage, goes down like a liquid effervescent lemon tart.”
Pair with: Fresh fruits and high-acidity desserts, like lemon meringue pie.
Late Harvest Solar | Burn Valley Vineyard | 2023 – £23.99
“Made with late harvest Solaris grapes, just about four miles from the Norfolk coastline, this wine is teeming with ripe apricot, lychee and nougat, well balanced with a bright zip of English acidity.”
Pair with: a key lime pie
Vermouth
“There are a few vermouths (technically an aromatised wine) made in the UK from English grapes that can work well with desserts, too, such as Burn Valley Vineyard’s Semi-Sweet Red Vermouth (£21.45) and Knightor Winery’s Rosso Vermouth (£17.55).”
Along with working at etch., Weatherill hosts Zest Wine Club in Brighton & Hove, offering tastings of the latest wine selections from lesser-known regions across the globe.
Follow Weatherill on Instagram at @sassysommelier.
Find many of these wines (listed below) at etch. by Steven Edwards in Brighton & Hove.
Pinot Noir, Danbury Ridge
Demi-Sec, Nyetimber
Skin Contact Ortega, Westwell
Diamond Fields Pinot Noir, Davenport
Pinot Gris, Stopham Estate
Rosé de Saignee, Everflyht
Blanc de Blancs, Tickerage
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