‘Burgundy eat your heart out!’: Devon manufacturer is toast of wine international

They started through generating beverages extra normally related to the rolling hills of southern England – hearty ciders, warming tipples constituted of hedgerow culmination and excellent outdated mead.

But Lyme Bay Winery in Devon is celebrating a little bit of historical past having turn out to be the primary English manufacturer to win prestigious world trophies for each pink and white wine in the similar yr.

Its Martin’s Lane Estate chardonnay 2020 and Lyme Bay Winery pinot noir 2021 gained the English white trophy and English pink trophy respectively on the 2025 International Wine Challenge (IWC).

“We knew we had produced some really good wine that had aged beautifully,” the vineyard’s operations supervisor Wolfgang Sieg-Hogg stated. “We thought we’d be there or thereabouts but to take both prizes is wonderful.

“It’s a labour of love – the entire team has worked tirelessly to get here. It’s a huge moment for us – and for English still wine. English wine producers are the new boys on the world stage but we’re definitely on the up.”

The IWC judges have been unquestionably gushing. Of the chardonnay, they stated: “Burgundy eat your heart out! Spry, toasty oak with ripe peach, melon, and apples. Wholesome fresh dry flavours of wet stones, citrus zest and a long, lingering finish. Harmonious and expressive.”

They described the pinot noir as having “beautiful aromatics of autumn leaves, ripe cherries, dried herbs, and iodine”, including: “The palate reveals ripe strawberry and cranberry, with appealing spicy details. A complex, textured finish completes this elegant wine.”

Founded 32 years in the past, and now using 30 other folks, the vineyard is on a winding lane simply out of doors town of Axminster in East Devon (subsequent to a automobile reclamation backyard and artisan espresso manufacturing facility).

It nonetheless sells cider, hedgerow wine and mead however its determination to department out into high quality wines has confirmed a excellent one.

Rather than depending by itself winery, the grapes for its wine are sourced from all over the place southern England. The successful chardonnay used to be made with grapes from the Martin’s Lane winery within the Crouch valley, Essex, and benefitted from the lengthy, scorching summer season of 2020.

Grapes for the pinot noir have been from Martin’s Lane and 4 different Essex vineyards. The summer season of 2021 used to be cool however a past due heat spell in October allowed a longer “hang time”, ripening the grapes properly.

Sieg-Hogg stated the ethos used to be to not be tied to at least one winery however to supply the most efficient grapes from the most efficient. “We don’t go for quantity but for quality,” he stated.

It method when the grapes ripen there’s a race to reap them and power them around the nation to Devon, the place they’re overwhelmed and pressed and the “magic”, as Sieg-Hogg referred to as it, of turning the juice into wine in gleaming tanks and oak barrels starts. “You don’t get much sleep at that time,” he added.

Once the butt of jokes, the English wine trade has begun to silence the cynics, with sparking wines comparable to the ones produced in the Camel valley in Cornwall main the best way.

The local weather disaster has created very good stipulations for rising grapes, now not simply within the south of England however, an increasing number of, farther north and west in the United Kingdom. Extreme warmth threatens to hurt some extra conventional wine areas, comparable to the ones in Spain, Italy and southern California.

The Lyme Bay trophy-winning wine isn’t affordable – the chardonnay is £35 and the pinot noir is £29.99. Buy there are just a few thousand bottles of them and they’re going to quickly pass.

There are inexpensive “entry level” wines on be offering and the vineyard sells to Aldi. “It’s about increasing the popularity of English wine, making it more accessible to more people,” stated Steve Richardson, the executive of the vineyard’s cellar door store.

The customer ebook on the store displays that guests from Australia, North America and continental Europe come right here in the hunt for out the Devon wines.

“The Scandinavians love our wines,” stated Richardson. “The Australians come with very open minds; the French don’t like to admit how good it is.”