Two vibrant sparkling wines: an energetic rosé full of Summer strawberry fruit and a lively white that tastes like Springtime.
It’s not just about the fun of this being England’s first sparkling wine to be made just like Italian fizz. It’s the sustainable core of PIWI grape varieties that make these wines unique.
Cabaret Noir, Souvignier Gris, Sauvignac... these aren’t weird spelling mistakes, they’re hardy, disease resistant grape varieties that love our English climate. This means more colour, more flavour, more aromatics and lower intervention.
Because these vines want to grow here in the UK we need to do less in the vineyard. This minimal intervention approach is why natural winemakers are selecting them. It’s the most ethical choice of grape variety and in the Charmat it’s also the most delicious choice.
Charmat paves the way for the future of English viticulture.
We start with PIWIs
Cabaret Noir, Solaris, Souvignier Gris, Pinotin are all things you've likely never heard of, but these PIWI hybrids are what make Charmat delicious.
Their varietal character is what makes the Flint Charmat work. Always bold, always fresh, deeply coloured as a rosé, perfumed and fresh as a white. Full-on raw material that makes Charmat stand apart.
By carefully combining these PIWIs together with other aromatic varieties, we start by blending a punchy, fruity still wine that we then need to sparkle up.
Tank-fermented for all the fizz
The secondary fermentation is what makes wine fizzy, whether traditional bottle fermented or in a tank like Charmat and that other well-known Italian fizz!
The still base wine goes in, we add yeast and sugar to get the fermentation started and seal them up. Double-walled like a submarine, these tanks keep in the pressure, dissolving the released CO2 into a fine mousse. It’s then bottled straight away to preserve those wonderful primary flavours of the PIWI grapes.
We do the complicated stuff to get it into the bottle so that it's effortlessly drinkable in your glass.
