Dear <<First Name>>,
Harvest is upon us as we kick off another season from our estate vineyards here in Kent. As we prepare for our next vintage, it is a pleasure to connect with our Gusbourne Select List for a special study of our most well-known grape variety – Chardonnay. This release contains two vintages of our Blanc de Blancs, the wine produced from the very best Chardonnay fruit from across our estate vineyards.
Through this duo of Blanc de Blancs 2018 and Blanc de Blancs 2013 en Magnum you will be able to taste how the complexity of our Chardonnay increases with further time in the bottle, and its intensity is further amplified by the large format. Both wines are drinking with great aromatics and concentration now upon release from our cellars, and would be great additions to any upcoming holiday celebration. These cuvées, particularly the 2013 magnum, are in limited quantities, so we recommend responding with your order as soon as possible.
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Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2018
This 100% Chardonnay showcases the balance between stunning purity of fruit and texture that comes with lees aging. A true representative of the potential for this grape variety, we select the best lots of fruit for our Blanc de Blancs that express minerality and finesse, as well as the production of an elegant perlage. Grapes for this wine comes from our estate vineyards in Appledore, Kent and near Goodwood in West Sussex.
2018 was an incredible vintage, particularly for Chardonnay. The growing season started out with very healthy soils from the good levels of winter rainfalls. When the buds burst in mid-April and subsequent June flowering, the season was warm but not hot, allowing for beautiful vine development with great quality and cluster quantities. We performed a green harvest in August, dropping 50% of the fruit, to focus the vine energy on the best clusters and intensify the flavor and concentration so that by harvest, the fruit was ripe, intense and held balanced acidity. The wine was aged on the lees for several years in bottle before disgorgement and cellaring.
- GOLD MEDAL - Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships 2022 - "Elegant toasty nose with restraint. Cool crunchy white fruit. Very clean and beautifully lemony…Complete, satisfying.”
- 97 points, Platinum Medal - Decanter World Wine Awards (2016 vintage)
- $XX per 750ml bottle
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Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2013 – en magnum
This bottling is a spectacular example of the potential for ageability for our wines. When bottled in magnum, the wine develops slowly, allowing the perlage to integrate beautifully for years of complexity.
Every vintage of our Blanc de Blancs takes the best Chardonnay of the vintage, sourced from our estate vineyards, to create a wine that highlights the maximum quality of the varietal.
A cool spring in 2013 resulted in a later than usual start to the season. Once bud burst was underway growth was consistent and strong. Good temperatures in early July meant that flowering was successful and relatively quick. Summer was cool, and harvest commenced slightly later than usual, but yielded very high-quality fruit that produced wines of great freshness and elegance.
The base wine in 2013 had a small portion of oak aging to add further structure to the wine without creating any oaky profile in the flavor in the final bottling. The dosage was 9 g/L with very high natural acidity to create a texture that is rich, round yet bright in the mouth. Further, this vintage was aged on the lees for average of 70 months.
- 94 points, Wine Enthusiast (750ml) – “A restrained but pure note of lemon constitutes the nose, suggesting both tangy zest and juicy flesh. The subtle mousse of tiny bubbles and a sonorous backdrop of autolysis counters all of this freshness and allows it to blanket the senses with its shimmering, lemony but also creamy briskness. That luminous lemon core leaves a lasting impression on the palate. Purity, slenderness and elegance are its hallmarks. Lovely now this wine will age with grace. Drink 2017–2025."
- GOLD MEDAL & Best Prestige Cuvée - WineGB Awards (750ml)
- GOLD MEDAL - IWSC, IWC, TexSom
- $XX per 1500ml magnum
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Deadline for orders is 13 October
- Orders should be packed and available ~5 weeks later
- Shipping included for orders totaling $250 or more
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VinConnect has launched a new, more intuitive eCommerce system with new account features like order history, address updates and list management. Click here to see a 2-minute video highlighting the new features.
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Should you plan a European journey, please do make sure you come to see us: we are not far from London’s airports, and if tempted to travel across Europe by train, Eurostar’s Ashford International rail station (which links London to Paris, Lille, Brussels and beyond) is a mere hop and a skip from the Estate; we would be delighted to receive you for a tour of the vineyards and winery, and a tasting in The Nest.
Best wishes,
Charlie Holland
Winemaker
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