Limney Organic Sparkling Wine 75cl

Davenport Vineyards Limney Estate Sparkling Wine is made from Pinot Noir and Auxerrois grown on the vineyard at Rotherfield. This wine is aged on lees for 3 years and has a dry balance. There is a touch of smoke on the nose with an apple crumble character coming through. The yeasty flavours on the palate are balanced superbly by the strong Pinot Noir character which shows ripe strawberries and a limey fresh quality.

Their sparkling wines (like the Davenport Vineyards Limney Estate Sparkling Wine) are low sulphites wines, preserving aromas and authenticity of the grapes.

Each vineyard is selected for its own particular character: the soil is loamy over sandstone in the Limney vineyard with very good drainage and a high iron content with low yields. The west facing fairly steep slope is ideal for the late ripening grapes because it has exposure to the sun until late in the day. Organic grapes are grown without chemical fertilisers, weed killers, insecticides and using only a very limited range of fungicides. The aim is to get as close as possible to a natural environment and cause less pollution into the water, soil and air around the vineyard (and then into the wider environment). By focussing on care for the soil in the vineyard the vines have a balance and health that cannot come from the use of chemicals.

In the winery Will Davenport follows Soil Association standards, which meet and exceed the EU organic winemaking regulations that were introduced in 2013. On top of this they have their own way of making wines which are designed to maximise the flavours and character of the grapes. They indeed avoid the use of bought-in yeast, and they do not fine their wines, and many are bottled without filtration. Sulphur dioxide, used to prevent oxidation of the wine, is added to the wine but levels are kept to well below the organic limit (which is half the level allowed in non-organic wines). Their sparkling wines in particular, like the Davenport Vineyards Limney Estate Sparkling Wine, have very low sulphite levels, a factor which may be of interest to anyone with a sensitivity to sulphur (such as some asthmatics).