Following the 2022 harvest we matured two outstanding wines in 100% new French oak for 18 months.
Four barrels of Pinot Noir and four barrels of Chardonnay.
The result was two bold but beautifully balanced expressions of a stellar vintage in England.
They’re so special that we have laid them down in bottle to evolve for a further 6 months before being released in November 2024
There are just 900 bottles of each.
A First for Flint
In the summer of 2022 Ben made a call to iconic Burgundian cooper, Tonellerie Rousseau, to order the first new oak ever used at Flint.
Ben and Oli worked with Rousseau to choose a range with different characteristics that would suit the wines at Flint. Decisions such as the level of toasting and the location of the forest affect the flavours of the final wine.
A Stellar Vintage
The hot summer and warm, dry Autumn of 2022 yielded Pinot Noir at Flint that was perfect for making red wine. This doesn’t happen every year.
The same thing happened at our partner vineyard, Martin’s Lane in the Crouch Valley, Essex. They harvested a pristine parcel of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
As the grapes ripened into October we knew the 2022 vintage was going to be fantastic.
Élevage
We nurtured each of the barrels individually and with great care. Ben and Oli matched the barrel types for the Chardonnay to suit the pressing techniques and yeast strains used. They wanted as much complexity as possible, planning eventually to blend the separate barrels into a single wine.
The Pinot Noir from both our own vineyards and Martin’s Lane was fermented in small lots. It was then carefully drained, taking only the free-run wine into five of the barrels.
