The 2023 Pinot Noir opens with bright, lifted red fruits – cranberry, wild strawberry, and a hint of pomegrante, layered with delicate floral notes and subtle spice. The palate is medium-bodied and graceful, with softer, more polished tannins than the 2022 vintage that lend a silky texture from start to finish. The fruit feels pure and finely etched. The finish is long and refined, carrying a lingering note of rose petal and fresh forest floor. After handpicking and sorting, the fruit was gently destemmed without crushing to maintain whole berries. The grapes were then gravity-fed into open-top oak and concrete fermenters for 3 to 5 days cold soak. Temperatures were allowed to increase naturally, and the cap received just one to two punch downs per day. Some vats also received extended skin maceration. The wine was transferred to French oak barrels for MLF, bâttonage and 12 months ageing, before being bottled unfined and unfiltered. Danbury Ridge was founded by two generations of the Bunker family: Michael and Heather Bunker and their daughters, Janine and Sophie. The first vines were planted in 2014, with an unwavering focus on still Pinot Noir and Chardonnay clones to exploit the unique mesoclimate. After just a few seasons the vines were producing grapes of a ripeness previously unseen in the UK. Estuarine Essex is smeared with a thick layer of London Clay, but at Danbury Ridge this tenacious deposit lies beneath a significant overburden of fluvial-glacial sand and gravel. It is this coarse aggregate, deep in some places, shallow in others, that makes Danbury Ridge so special. The Danbury Ridge mesoclimate comes into its own in late summer. Ripening does not stall with the autumn equinox. Natural woodland shelter belts, together with the light topsoils, magnify the effects of September sunlight.
