Sugrue, Trouble With Dreams, England 2018 - 75cl

This is Dermot Sugrue's flagship, and it comes from one site: Storrington Priory Vineyard, on the Sussex chalk. The 2018 is the vintage English growers still talk about — long, warm and generous, with a ripeness most English years simply never deliver.

It shows in the glass. Where the leaner vintages give you citrus and not a great deal else, the 2018 has weight to it: baked apple and white peach, then the pastry and toasted-almond notes of proper lees ageing, with chalk holding the line underneath. The mousse is fine and persistent. The acidity is still very much present — this is England, after all — but here it has fruit to work against rather than a vacuum.

Sugrue learned the trade at Nyetimber and Wiston before going out on his own, and this is the bottle that made the case for him. At £55 it sits alongside grower Champagne on price, and it earns that comparison rather than borrowing it.

How to Serve

8 to 10°C, in a white wine glass. It keeps opening up for a good half hour, so do not rush the first glass.

Where to Drink It

Noble Rot, for a list that takes English wine seriously. The Wolseley, for a long lunch. Dandy on Maltby Street if you want it less starched.

Food Pairings

Roast chicken with the skin properly crisp. Or a piece of turbot. It is better with food than as an aperitif, which is not what most people expect.