Col’19 - Tillingham

Col ' - Tillingham

Col 'by Tillinghan is a wine refermented in the bottle that comes from a blend of Pinot Noir, Auxerrois,Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier.All the grapes are processed separately: those of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay are pressed into whole bunches and fermented in steel. A part of those of Auxerrois is pressed in whole bunches and fermented in steel, while the remaining part is macerated for the remainder on the skins for 24 hours before pressing and refined in Qvevri. The wines thus produced are assembled and bottled for refermentation. Zero filtration and zero clarification. A wine that gives notes of lemon and green apple that lead to an agile and slightly creamy sip with a good length.

Service

It is recommended to taste it at a temperature of 8/10 °. Wine to be drunk immediately but will give its best in 2/3 years.

Pairing

Wine to combine with first courses with fish sauce and elaborate fish preparations, to try with sea bass in salt.

Cellar: Tillingham

Tillingham is a winery producing natural and biodynamic wine rooted in the East Sussex countryside, perched on a hill overlooking the English Channel. The 70-acre farm is home to vineyards, a winery and a restaurant, as well as eleven en-suite bedrooms in what was once a barn. The company is run according to biological and biodynamic principles and, in addition to the wines, the products of the restaurant menu are often grown on the farm. Behind Tillingham is Ben Walgate, who grew up on a farm in rural Lincolnshire. "This was hugely significant to my upbringing," he says, "just having this connection to the land. I never thought about it until recently, when I had my own farm, how comfortable I am with all of this." . During school he works in restaurants and wine bars, and when he moves to London for college he works at the Majestic. 'I got to the end of college and I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, but the only thing that didn't go away was making wine.' So he buys a one-way ticket to Europe and a family friend in the hotel business puts him in contact with many vineyard owners. This included Albert Bichot in Burgundy. "It opened my eyes," he recalls. "They were industrial: more than three million bottles of wine." But he found it instructive to spend a few days with their winemaker tasting all the different wines. Back in England, he moved to the East Sussex countryside, where he planted 10,000 vines in 2018 and another 30,000 plants in 2019. There are 21 different varieties, but with clonal variations there are actually 32. Among the Germanic varieties, Orgtega, Muller Thurgau, Schönberger, Regent, Faberrebe and a few others. Then there are Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. And then Pinot Grigio, Pinot d'Aunis and even Gamay. There is some Chenin Blanc in an experimental block called Copp's Bank, which is quite sheltered. Ben Walgate loves experimental, still wines, aged in amphora, classic and refermented methods.