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I am sure there have been times in the past decade when Champagne Taittinger questioned the wisdom of getting into English sparkling wine. And the preview of its debut release, Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée, which took place late last month, initially looked like it was going to be one of those days. The event, at the Domaine in Kent in south-east England, was dogged by torrential rain and malfunctioning train lines. But once the anoraks were discarded and the wine was poured, it became clear we were in the presence of something rather exciting.
Taittinger isn’t the first champagne house to release an English sparkling wine – Vranken-Pommery has been making bubbly in Hampshire, Louis Pommery England, for a number of years. But inevitably many will look upon Domaine Evremond, which is grown and made by Taittinger’s own team, as English wine’s real acid test.
The Taittinger family began secretly scouting for sites to plant vines about 10 years ago, with the help of wine experts Patrick McGrath MW and Stephen Skelton MW. “I had always drunk widely, and considered English wine very present, very relevant, but we wanted to open our eyes more to the expression of terroir,” says Vitalie Taittinger, president of both Taittinger and Domaine Evremond. “It’s important to say that what we’re making here is not comparable to champagne. It is like comparing white wine from Burgundy or Loire or Oregon – they are all white wines but there are big differences due to the climate, the soil. And it is that diversity that we find so interesting.”
The founders ultimately settled on a plot in the rolling hills of Chilham in Kent, a part of England famous for growing apples and soft fruit. “When the NDA was lifted and I realised who we’d sold the land to, it was a very happy day,” says Mark Gaskain, MD of fruit farmers Gaskains, which now oversees the day-to-day management of the vineyards for Taittinger.
The chalky terroir in this part of the world is similar to what they work in Champagne, but with a little more flint, says Taittinger vineyard director Christelle Rinville. Light levels are slightly lower, humidity slightly higher and there’s more of a marine influence “so there’s a little saltiness”. The micro-variations are what make the difference.
The first vines went into the ground in 2017 and today the Domaine has 60 hectares of vineyards planted with a mix of Champagne’s big three: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier. Compared to Taittinger in France, which owns 288 hectares of vineyards and also buys grapes in, it is absolutely tiny – consider it more of a grower champagne-type affair than a grande marque.
Domaine Evremond First Edition features a roughly similar ratio of white to black grapes as Taittinger’s Brut Réserve – there’s a big component of Chardonnay (30 to 40 per cent), made up with Pinot Noir and Meunier. Both wines also have a similar time on the lees. The First Edition has far fewer components, though, at this stage – which is to be expected from a Domaine with only five vintages under its belt.
What struck me first about this silver-gold wine was its lovely appearance: it had a necklace of fine, creamy bubbles that swooshed scents of citrus, apple, pear and wet chalk out of the glass. The clanky acidity that so often dogs English wine had been teased out to a fine filigree that threaded its way through ripe fruit notes and on to a mouthwatering, saline finish. “This project has been very exciting,” says Taittinger’s chef de cave Alexandre Ponnavoy. “It’s an opportunity to define a unique style.”
The venture is a partnership with English wine agency Hatch Mansfield, and the Domaine’s name is a nod to that cross-channel relationship. Charles de Saint-Évremond was a Frenchman and literary critic who is said to have propagated champagne’s popularity in the court of Charles II, ultimately embedding himself in court life so much he was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Domaine Evremond’s First Edition hits the shops in early 2025, priced at £50 – roughly on a par with top-flight English producers such as Gusbourne. The bottle is grand, in an understated way, but the only mention of Taittinger is in tiny print on the back label. “We believe the wine to be good enough that it can stand alone,” says Taittinger.
The pale stone-coloured winery, by architect Giovanni Pace, keeps a similarly low profile – two-thirds of it is buried underground. But there is a terrace with widescreen views of the vineyards that will ultimately offer by-appointment “tastings with local food pairings”. There’s still a fair bit of landscaping to do, but this young Domaine, and wine, has already got great bones.
Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée will be available from the Cellar Door and fine wine merchants in spring 2025