Wayfarer Pinot Gris 2019 English White Wine

The Wayfarer Estate lies on the slopes of the North Downs to the east of Maidstone near Hollingbourne. The vines were planted in 2016 and this is the very first wine of what, I believe, promises to be an exciting and quality driven wine producer. The reason for writing this is simply that the Ashford family are very focussed on building slowly and carefully toward a range of good quality still wines with forays into sparkling wine along the way and selecting prime vineyard sites to support this ambition. It is a planned evolution where, after planting vines in the ‘back garden’ of the family home to check out the capability of the project, a new site has been found in Woodchurch to plant still wine varieties such as Pinot Noir, Bacchus and Chardonnay. This site is close to the well-known, award-winning Gusbourne estate and is a neighbour to Woodchurch Wine Estate, a little known but extremely good producer of sparkling wine, plus a little excellent Pinot Noir. The climate, micro-climate and soils have a proven capability and the family can manage the vineyard sites and the wine is made at a nearby state of the art crush company, Defined Wine. So, we at Corkk look forward to watching the development of Wayfarer Wines. We have selected Pinot Gris for its balance, harmony and evolving characters. The wine has a cobnut, apple and pear aroma but its developing a light spice note. The palate has a typical fresh English character but there is an edge of creaminess, of roundness that reminds the drinker of the Alsace style of Pinot Gris rather than that found in the cool mountainous Alto Adige. A lovely wine on its own but has the weight to partner white meats such as chicken and pork. Try with an escalope of either with a cut of lemon, some fries and a glass of Wayfarer Pinot Gris.