First taste: Rathfinny new releases

Nestled in a fold of the English South Downs, on chalk soils just 5km from the English Channel, Rathfinny celebrates its tenth birthday this year. Established by Mark and Sarah Driver in 2010 after the former hedge fund manager paid £5m for the estate, its first vines were planted in 2012.

There’s no shortage of ambition here. The Drivers intended from the outset to produce wines that would compete with the finest sparkling wines in the world – including Champagne – and the goal is to have around 150ha under vine, making it one of the UK’s largest vineyard sites.

• In 2015, Rathfinny bottled their first wine

They attribute the quality of fruit to the site, a south-facing slope sheltered by a ridge from severe frost and from the worst of the southwesterly winds. Its proximity to the sea gives a warmer microclimate, allowing longer hang-time for the grapes – Rathfinny typically harvests two to three weeks later than its neighbours. Afternoon breezes keep the grapes healthy, and the philosophy is to reflect the best of the vintage, and of the terroir, with as little intervention as possible. The extra hang-time also means that a lower dosage can be used in the winery; all four wines have a dosage of 5g/L or under. It’s about getting the balance right, says Mark Driver. ‘We don’t want the wines to be jarringly dry, but we want the dosage to enhance the flavours rather than change them, and to add texture.’  

Such is their belief that the vintage should be key to the style of the wines that they do not include a non-vintage cuvée in their line-up. ‘Non-vintage wines were an accident of history in my view,’ says Mark Driver, ‘and can undermine very good vintages. We should always celebrate and reflect the character of the vintage.’ The rosé is from 2017, a vintage marked by heavy frost in April. Due to its warmer microclimate, the estate lost less than 1% of early buds and most of the vineyard escaped the frost. After a wet and cool ripening season, an Indian summer allowed a long ripening period and led to ‘exceptional’ quality, according to Driver. The other three wines are all from 2016, a great year, he says, but one described without use of the superlatives applied to 2017. 

The owners’ passion is Pinot Noir, which accounts for almost half of the planted area. The Blanc de Noirs, says Mark Driver, is the wine he always wanted to make – he describes the signature sparkling as ‘Bollingeresque’.

With Champagne in his sights, Driver is keen to set a quality benchmark for the region and is following the slow progress through the European courts of the application by a number of wineries, including Rathfinny, for a Sussex PDO. ‘The rules around the English PDO don’t go far enough for me – they don’t reflect the quality of wine being made here.’ 

The latest releases of the Rathfinny range are on sale from 29 May, direct from the winery and through selected retailers.

Rathfinny Range: First Taste