Fox & Fox Mayfield Chairman's Vat Brut 2014 (750ML)

91 DE WWA / 17 JR

Gold Medal 2020 Sommelier Wine Awards
Runner-up Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year 2020 Sommelier Wine Awards

Silver Medal (91 pts) Decanter World Wine Awards

Blended by Gerard Fox, the one half of the husband-and-wife couple running Fox & Fox (the beautifully named Jonica being the other half). 60% Pinot Noir, 20% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Gris from vines planted in 2004. Lees aged for four and a half years, disgorged December 2019, dosage 8.5 g/l. 
The smell of sea shells, lemon peels, wet black sea-side rocks. Fine but billowing mousse that fills every corner of the mouth, throwing tiny shards and crystals of lemon and grapefruit and iced white blossom into a sherbet-fizzing cloud of flavour and angles. A wonderful juxtaposition of angles and petalled delicacy. The citrus delivers a hard, sure, clean-cut drive of long, geometric lines. And then, perhaps it's the Pinot Gris, the lines are hazed into something more gentle with a floral lightness, a sweet spice. I find my greedy mind wandering down market stalls of coriander and galanghal, lime and dried fish, scallops and chillis. (TC) - JancisRobinson .com

A unique one-off, personally blended by Gerard Fox from the 2014 wines in tank. This was his inspiring idea. We tasted and tested the wine in January 2019 and, because we thought it was worth it, we left it for an extra year on lees compared with all our other 2014 wines. - winery

Number of bottles: 1,018 Limited Edition
Winemaking: Traditional Method Steel tank & Bottle Fermentation Un-filtered
Cépage: Pinot Noir 60 % Chardonnay 20 % Pinot gris 20%
Time on lees: 5 years
Disgorged December 2019
Dosage 8.5 g/L
Clones: Dijon/Burgundy clones selected for flavour & Champagne clones for structure.

The stunning vineyard is situated in the ancient hilltop village of Mayfield in East Sussex, amongst the rolling hills, woodlands and deep-cut ghylls of the Sussex High Weald. They are surrounded by bluebell woods in springtime and over-flown by Buzzards, Red Kites and other hawks in summer. This beautiful site represents the unique Sussex countryside at its best. The vineyard are planted with the classic Champagne varietals of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, with additional small plantings of Pinot Gris.

The vineyard was planted in 2004 and they have been producing wines since 2009. The emphasis is on minimal intervention in the vineyard & light manipulation in the winery. The production levels are minuscule, as huge attention is taken to getting perfect fruit to the winery.