‘Nothing wrong’ with 2012 vintage in England

Richard Balfour-Lynn, owner of Hush Heath in Kent, has defended the 2012 vintage in England, insisting a lack of preparation saw producers caught short.

Speaking to the drinks business during a recent visit to the estate, Balfour-Lynn said: “A number of estates saw their crops written off in 2012, but I had a great crop. It was all about attention to detail. I knew the storm was coming and I sprayed at the right moment.

“There was nothing wrong with the 2012 vintage, it was just very variable so a lot of estates got caught short as they didn’t manage to get their grapes to ripen or they were plagued by disease.

“We have a system in place that alerts our vineyard staff when the temperature gets to one degree, and if it drops to zero then we light candles among the vines to raise the temperature.”

Balfour-Lynn puts his success down to his “uncompromising” approach at the estate. As a result, the 2012 vintage of Balfour Brut Rosé has just been taken on by Gordon Ramsay Plane Food at Heathrow Terminal 5.

Richard Balfour-Lynn

Nyetimber in West Sussex famously didn’t produce a vintage in 2012, abandoning the entire harvest as the grapes weren’t up to winemaker Cherie Spriggs’ high standards.

Fortunately, two stellar vintages followed a difficult 2012 in England. Balfour-Lynn describes 2013 as “excellent” and 2014 “exceptional”. He also has high hopes for 2015: “It should be very very good, but a lot could go wrong between now and mid to late October,” he admitted to db.

As to whether English sparkling wine needs a pithy name like Champagne or Prosecco, Balfour-Lynn isn’t convinced.

“I don’t think a jazzy name would have any effect on sales, the bigger problem is consumers not understanding the difference between English and British wine,” he warned.

“There’s talk of creating a Sussex PDO, which I don’t agree with. What we need to do is work together to collectively promote ‘brand England’ rather than fragment ourselves. The key players need to create a clear quality standard for all traditional method producers to adhere to,” he added.

There are whisperings among the trade that we could soon see the emergence of the first tank method English sparkling wine on the market, a move Balfour-Lynn deems risky and potentially damaging to the industry’s reputation.

“If people cut corners and make tank method fizz they need to be clearly distinguished from the rest of the pack,” he said.