Alex's Notes on Bride Valley
Planted in 2008, the 24 acres of vineyards at Bride Valley were the brainchild of wine legend Steven Spurrier.
He had for some time pondered the obvious potential for growing vines on his wife Bella's 200-acre sheep farm neighbouring the village of Litton Cheney, Dorset, 10 miles west of Dorchester.
Spurrier is perhaps best known for his 'Judgement of Paris' blind tasting in 1976. At this tasting, Californian wines were ranked above those from Burgundy and Bordeaux, sending shock waves through the wine establishment. It was immortalised by the film Bottle Shock in which Spurrier was played by Alan Rickman.
TL;DR
Bride Valley now sees roughly the same number of Growing Degree Days that most of Champagne and the northern reaches of Burgundy enjoyed between 20 to 30 years ago. Its soils are similar not just to those of Champagne but also to the limestone-rich areas of Chablis and Sancerre.
It is perhaps, therefore, no wonder that they are producing wines worth obsessing over.
Steven Spurrier
A very reserved, humble man, if somewhat debonair. Rarely seen without a top pocket handkerchief.
I first met him in 1997/98 when he popped into the Fuller’s wine shop I managed in South Kensington, just a few doors down from the famous auction house Christie’s where he worked at the time.
This was only my first or second year in the wine trade and I didn't recognise him, so I began to tell him all about the wine that he had come in to buy a few bottles of. I tried to sell him all manner of other things, until he very politely told me that he was just buying the wine for a tasting he was organising "down the road" - at Christie's.
Suddenly he looked very familiar and once he’d left, there he was in the open copy of Decanter on my desk!
And yes, I can remember the wine he came in for, of course - Galpin Peak Pinot Noir from South Africa. I think I may have pretended to be more knowledgeable about this wine than I was at the time, to one of the world's foremost experts on the subject!
Oh the embarrassment; one of those situations where you want to hide in a cupboard and never come out.
Winemaking Philosophy
In 2008 Spurrier, his wife Bella, and their team selected 13 of the finest clones of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier from Burgundy’s Pépinières Guillaume to match each individual plot.
Spurrier's winemaking philosophy was then to let the vineyards speak: the chalky soils and the cool climate act as the defining character for the wines, rather than heavy intervention in the cellar. In his words "the style comes from the vineyard....the winemaking doesn't affect the taste of the wine at all."
Wines are made by Ian Edwards of the nearby Furleigh Estate - UK Winemaker of the Year in 2012.
Dorset Soil
The Jurassic-era Kimmeridgian limestone soils in this part of Dorset are made up of marine fossils (e.g. the small comma-shaped oysters), chalk, clay, marl and silt.
The same soils are found in several of the most prized winegrowing areas of France and are celebrated for producing mineral, tense, long-lived wines.
Interestingly, although Kimmeridgian soils might be more associated with France, Dorset was actually responsible for naming them: the name originates from the village of Kimmeridge, on the other side of Weymouth from Bride Valley.
Just like in Dorset, the other major soil type in Chablis (as well as the Loire, Jura and the northern fringes of Champagne) is “Portlandian” limestone, as per the soil found on the Isle of Portland and other areas of the Jurassic coast.
The Enduring Legacy of a Convention-challenger & Wine Lover
Steven Spurrier was the embodiment of curiosity in a perfectly tailored jacket.
Never content with convention, he had a lifelong habit of nudging the wine world beyond its comfort zone. Whether championing emerging regions or planting his own vines on English chalk, he proved that passion and open-mindedness can rewrite the rules of wine.
He sadly died in 2021 but his legacy lives on not only in the story of the Judgement of Paris and in the wonderful wines made at Bride Valley, but also across the whole English wine industry as he played a key role in not only proving that English wine is viable on a larger scale, but is also world-class.