Whitewolfe Estates, KC23 Chardonnay 2022

Still English Chardonnay is where the interesting argument is now. England has proved it can make sparkling wine; the harder question is whether the same chalk can produce a still white worth drinking on its own terms. This is a decent answer.

It comes from Kits Coty in Kent, on the North Downs chalk, and 2022 was the vintage that made it possible — a warm, dry summer with low rainfall that gave steady ripening and unusually small bunches and berries. Small berries mean a higher skin-to-juice ratio, which means concentration. The wine then spent eleven months in barrel before blending, and the blend itself was assembled by tasting through the barrels and choosing the ones with approachability and stone fruit rather than the most obviously oaky.

The result is medium-bodied and clearly built around fruit. Stone fruit leads — white peach, a little apricot — with the oak showing as texture and a faint toast rather than vanilla. Underneath it all runs a citrus spine that keeps the wine upright, which is the thing English sites give you for free and warmer countries have to work for. The mouthfeel is generous, the finish long. At £32 you are drinking a wine that would cost noticeably more with a Burgundian address on the label.

How to Serve

10-12°C. Serving barrel-aged Chardonnay too cold is the commonest mistake there is — you flatten the texture that the oak paid for. A Burgundy-shaped glass, and give it fifteen minutes in the glass. Drink over the next three to four years.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot, which has long backed English still wine. Dandy on Maltby Street. Brat in Shoreditch, where anything grilled will suit it.

Food Pairings

Roast chicken, the default for good Chardonnay and unimprovable. It also handles a whole baked fish with butter, or a mushroom risotto if you want to lean into the barrel character.