2018 Sugrue Rosé Ex Machina

Dermot wanted to make the first ever rosé sparkling wine from Sugrue South Downs back in 2016, but the odds were stacked against him. The grape quality was exceptional, but the grape quantity was the exact opposite. Yields were tiny, leaving the tanks and barrels barren. It didn’t look good. Suddenly, though, like a Deux Ex Machina, the Gods intervened with grapes from Jenkyn Place Vineyard that were, quite literally, perfect. So crisp and so ripe and so faultless, it meant that he could make this extraordinary wine after all.

Named after its serendipitous conception, it truly is a wine from the Gods, a Rosé from the sky, a Rosé Ex Machina.

“Whenever I taste it – in fact: drink, consume, or inhale it – I am instantly transported back to 2018 and the near-constant luminosity of that year. It wasn’t just full of sunshine, it was simply relentlessly warm and bright from start to finish. The only interruption was… extra heat. And almost without a puff of wind at times, and virtually no rain. That remarkable summer is super evident in the wine, the flavours are so forward, generous and immediate and at ease with themselves – this Rose Ex Machina exudes all the confidence that it’s label promises.” – Dermot Sugrue

Origin: South Downs, England

Blend: Pinot Noir