2018 'Ex Machina' Sparkling Rosé, Sugrue South Downs
Hampshire, United Kingdom and England
Sugrue South Downs is the personal project of celebrated English sparkling winemaker Dermot Sugrue. His highly acclaimed and multi-award-winning sparkling wine ‘The Trouble with Dreams’ is stuff of legend and we think the best sparkling wine in the UK.
This his Sugrues very first rosé, a wine named “Rosé ex Machina” because of its serendipitous conception: 2016 was so fine in quality yet so meagre in quantity that Dermot had decided to make just one wine, putting all of his fruit into the prestige “Cuvée Dr Brendan O’Regan”. Then, just as the harvest was coming to an end and in Dermot’s own words, “the God’s intervened” and he was offered some outstanding fruit from the beautiful Jenkyn Place Vineyard in Hampshire. From these grapes “Rosé ex Machina” was born.
Just 4,500 bottles and 200 magnums were produced.
Whats in the bottle
50% Pinot Noir, 20% Pinot Meunier, 30% Chardonnay
Notable Awards
95 points, Anne Krebiehl MW, Falstaff, May 2022
Both orange peel and Red Delicious apple figure on the nose, alongside a subtle hint of fresh Viennoiserie that turns into shortcrust with more air. The palate strikes immediately with its effortlessness: there is that lovely balance between juicy freshness and mellow ripeness that you get in red apples. The slender body fizzes away with tiniest bubbles, lending creaminess and gentleness, expressing serenity, beauty and depth. Very elegant, lovely now, certain to evolve into a grandiose and gastronomic rosé.
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