2016 Tillington Single Vineyard

73% Pinot Noir, 27% Chardonnay grown on greensand in West Sussex. Disgorged July 2023. Dosage 9.8 g/l. TA 7.5 g/l, pH 3.13. This is the 5th vintage of this wine.  Intense but not overwhelming toasty/bready autolytic character with underlying ripe ctirus, mostly lemon but also a hint of honeyed apricot. On the palate, this is a masterly contrast between richness/depth/roundness and high acidity. It's still extremely youthful despite all this time on the lees. Deeply satisfying and deeply celebratory with a focus on lively energy. The underlying intensity of fruit and the balance suggests this is going to age well and could even have sat longer on the lees but it is à point now. Not bone dry but the balancing dosage is well judged and needed for harmony. (JH)

The 2016 Brut Tillington Single Vineyard, a blend of 73% Pinot Noir and 27% Chardonnay from a greensand site in the South Downs National Park, West Sussex, spent over six years on the lees. It opens with a lovely frisson of tart redcurrant berries and a hint of pepper spice on the nose. The palate is a vision of creamy lightness, with tender pale strawberry freshness highlighting the Pinot Noir majority in a slender, poised, bright and precise fashion. This wine exhibits purity, juiciness and polished precision, underlined by beautifully salty fine creamy foam. (Lot: L16TG2732A01)