Lyme Bay Chardonnay

Lyme Bay Winery is the home of LBW Drinks. This small, dedicated drinks company is full of people who are passionate about producing delicious and award-winning English Still and Sparkling Wine, Fruit Wine, Cider, Mead, Liqueur and Spirits from their home in Devon’s beautiful Axe Valley.

Here they combine their knowledge and love of flavours and ingredients with top notch wine-making skills to craft award-winning traditional drinks, tailored to the 21st-century palate. Each of these amazing products is fermented, blended and aged, as appropriate, on site at the Winery under the supervision of the LBW experienced team.

Chardonnay,

Vineyards: Martins Lane (Essex), Crouch Ridge (Essex), Old Mill House (Essex), Riverview Crouch Valley (Essex).

Stainless steel and French Oak (old and new).

A late dry spell in 2022 allowed LBW to hang the fruit for as long as possible to ensure peak physiological ripeness was achieved for their house style. This is a blend of aromatic and non-aromatic chardonnay fruit sourced from a collection of growers in Essex where the microclimate and soil allow the grapes to achieve excellent ripeness, harvested between 3rd and 14th October 2022. Fermented in a mixture of stainless steel and oak at cool temperatures using selected Burgundy yeast strains to enhance complexity, stone fruit, floral characters and minerality. Post-fermentation there was full malolactic fermentation and extended fine lees ageing with some bâtonnage to accentuate the natural weight.

A classic nose of crisp green apple, citrus and light honeysuckle. Baked apple and vibrant citrus lead on the palate, a creamy finish with just a hint of spice. A crisp and complex framework makes this wine an excellent match with food, and it also has the structure to support extended ageing.