Roebuck Estate

Roebuck’s Estate vineyards are located close to the market town of Petworth in West Sussex. Roebuck adopts the approach of using only the finest quality grapes, which they source from a variety of premium Sussex vineyards. The majority of the vineyards are located on chalk, clay, and sandy soils. Once the grapes are perfectly ripe, they are carefully handpicked and transported to the winery. The bunches are then whole bunch pressed and fermented in a mixture of stainless steel and Burgundian oak barrels.

The wine has an attractive pale lemon colour. There are notes of citrus fruit and baked apples, which are layered with a biscuity richness and delicious hint of hazelnut. The wine has a long and well-balanced finish.

Great as an aperitif wine, but also pairs well with Crab linguine, fresh oysters and goat’s cheese tart or a range of shellfish dishes.

The 2016 growing season took a little time to really get going but by mid-July things had picked up and the sunshine continued almost unabated until harvest. The small but perfectly formed bunches were allowed to bask in a long Indian summer and achieve full ripeness with excellent phenolics – the building blocks for some great sparkling wines. By harvest time, the fruit was beautifully ripe with perfect acids, which enabled an incredibly exact picking date. Carefully selected bunches were harvested by hand and gently whole-bunch pressed. Partial fermentation in old Burgundian barrels followed by a generous lees-ageing in bottle for a minimum of four years imparts a wonderful richness and complexity on this flagship cuvée.

“Lots of citrus and a floral quality. This would be lovely with a nice bit of sea bream roasted with lemons and olive oil.” Henry Jeffreys, BBC Good Food Decanter Silver 2022