Domaine Evremond, the first English winery to be set up by a Champagne house, has just launched its first cuvée – and sommeliers and wine critics are impressed.
The creation of Evremond, the brainchild of Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, the house’s honorary president, and UK wine merchant Patrick McGrath, was first announced in 2015 at Westminster Abbey in London.
Champagne Taittinger – the majority shareholder in the project – bought 69ha of land near the village of Chilham in Kent, most of it apple and pear orchards. In 2017, 21ha were planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier; two more vineyards were later added, as well as a further 10ha of Chardonnay. The total vineyard now covers 61ha.
This is south-facing, deep-draining, chalky soil, less than 15km from the North Sea. It bears many similarities to the terroir of Champagne (about three hours to the south by train), but also considerable differences: in particular the maritime climate compared to Champagne’s continental climate.
The first cuvée, launched last week over lunch at the Belgravia restaurant Cornus, has been well-received.
“An impressive debut for vines so young. I found the mousse exemplary, it lent a real elegance to the wine which showed much brighter and airier than its proportion of Pinot Noir would suggest,” Anne Krebiehl MW, a specialist in Champagne and sparkling wine, said.
Others were similarly complimentary. Critic Tom Hewson praised the “fine, ripe fruit [and] the pure, polished style”; Igor Sotric, head sommelier at China Tang at the Dorchester, said he would list the wine. “It's balanced and compact with lovely precision and mineral drive.”
Another senior Dorchester somm, Leonardo Barlondi, head of wine at The Grill by Tom Booton, also said it would work well on his list. He praised the label, “with the focus on Kent and the village [of Chilham] like a geographic unit.”
Presenting the wine, head winemaker Alexandre Ponnavoy returned again and again to the unique terroir of this part of England: the chalk soils laced with shards of flint, the maritime climate – and the fact that Kent is the third-driest place in the British Isles (after the Isle of Wight, and Essex). It also has the record for the most sunshine hours in England (though that would be a low bar, Ponnavoy suggested. “Sunshine is not exactly the norm in England.”)
Ponnavoy said he had been surprised and pleased by the potential shown by the first grapes harvested in 2018 (the first official vintage was 2019), from vines just a couple of years old. “We had no preconceptions,” he said. “We have had to learn a whole new approach to viticulture.” He noted that when they arrived ten years ago, there were very few wineries in Kent. Now there are 120.
The team sets great store by its reliance on local knowledge of the land. The previous owners, local family firm Gaskains that has grown fruit on the land for four generations, advise Taittinger’s vineyard manager Christelle Rinville on all aspects of growing here.
“A terroir is defined by its soil, its subsoil, its climate, its exposure and slope – and its people,” Rinville says.
The 120ha estate remains multi-use. Half of it is planted to vine, while the rest is woodland and apple and pear orchards, which are contracted back to Gaskains. It’s worth noting that Kent, first dubbed The Garden of England in the 16th century, has long been cherished for its fertile soils. Forty-two Kentish vineyards were recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.
At present there’s just one cuvée of Domaine Evremond. A rosé and a presige blanc de blancs are planned; whether there will be a vintage or not hasn’t been decided. The wine was made in borrowed facilities but from now on will be vinified at a purpose-built underground winery whose roof – only a third of the building is above ground – is a wildflower meadow.
Much is made of the fact that the winery, 23m underground, is built into Kentish chalk, which “provides naturally cool conditions”, and moreover “mimics the famous chalk cellars of Champagne Taittinger” in Reims.
Above all, this is a Franco-British project. The winery’s architect is French, working in collaboration with a British company; Christelle Rinville works closely with Mark Gaskain; the Taittinger family has been with the importer Hatch Mansfield, which McGrath heads, since 1994. And the the bond between Taittinger and Kent can be dated to many years before that, McGrath noted. The politician Jean Taittinger (Pierre-Emmanuel’s father), as mayor of Reims, twinned his town with Canterbury in 1950.
Finally, the name: Domaine Evremond in named in honour of Charles de Saint-Évremond, a French poet exiled to London by Louis XIV, a bon-viveur, courtier to Charles II, and Champagne’s first ambassador to England. He is the only Frenchman to be buried at Poet’s Corner in Westminster Abbey.
Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée is 55% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay and 15% Pinot Meunier, with a dosage of 7 grams per litre. The wine is fermented and matured entirely in stainless steel. The base vintage is 2020 with 20 per cent from 2019. The wine was bottled in June 2021 and disgorged in August 2024. It will be available in independent wine merchants and selected supermarkets, priced at approximately £50.
