Website: https://riverviewcrouchvalley.com/
It’s an interesting time for English still wines at the moment, and the Crouch Valley in Essex is emerging as a bit of a hotspot. This is a new wine, and it comes from the tricky 2021 vintage (recent vintages in the UK – 2018 abundant and good; 2019 tricky with a damp ending but quite good; 2020 warm and good; 2021 tricky and cool and wet; 2022 warm and good; 2023 abundant and a bit tricky because of growing season rain, but very good if the farming was spot on).
This is the first Pinot Noir from an 11-acre vineyard established in 2017 by husband-and-wife team Umut and Katie Yesil. Katie’s parents owned arable farming land and they converted some of this, and viticulture is assisted by Duncan MacNeill, who is a highly respected consultant (and features in my Crouch Valley story linked above).
Riverview Pinot Noir 2021 Crouch Valley, Essex, England
12.5% alcohol. Harvested at the beginning of November, and aged for 12 months in French oak. This is pale in colour with a slight brick-red edge to the cherry red. It’s highly aromatic with sweet herbal notes blending in nicely with red cherries, wood spice and aniseed, as well as some orange peel notes. The palate is elegant with sweet cherries and strawberries, more wood spice and a hint of negroni, finishing with some sour cherry. There’s plenty of flavour here, even if it is on the light, delicate sappy side of Pinot. Good effort from a challenging vintage, and this bodes well for future wines from this vineyard. 90/100