THE TROUBLE WITH DREAMS 2009 – MAGNUM
THE TROUBLE WITH DREAMS 2009 – MAGNUM
Please note: strictly limited to 3 magnums per customer
Having left Nyetimber two years prior, 2009 found Dermot on his second vintage at Wiston Estate and beginning to recognise just how important the English wine industry would one day become. Meanwhile, Ana – yet to visit England’s shores – was starting her third year studying horticulture at the University of Zagreb.
“Very warm, with high sugars and high acidity – 2009 was different from almost all others in England,” recalls Dermot. “It was the perfect year to make vintage sparkling wines that can age for a very, very long time.”
Realising the inherent quality of the Chardonnay grown in Hampshire’s Jenkyn Place, we bottled the wine in magnum (every winemaker's preferred format for the ideal maturation and enjoyment of their wine) to allow natural slow development and to temper the furious acidity it showed at the start of its life.
Spending 12 years in bottle and a further two years ageing on cork after disgorgement, the 2009 vintage of The Trouble with Dreams is now showing phenomenal concentration with effortless ease of fruit, composure and completeness. Complex, rich and elegant, the fruit is vivid, while the energy remains fresh and focused. This is a sublime and rare example of mature English sparkling wine at its very best.
Couldn't load pickup availability
Collapsible content
TECHNICAL INFORMATION
CEPAGE: 60% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir, 15% Pinot Meunier
VINEYARDS: Jenkyn Place, Hampshire Greensand. The presence of the mineral glauconite distinguishes greensand from the more common sandstone, typically north of the South Downs National Park where chalk predominates. Jenkyn Place Vineyard also exhibits fractured chalk in its topsoil and subsoil, it is free draining and relatively high in fertility.
YIELD: Approx 7,000 kg/ha (2009 vintage). Only 600 magnums produced.
VINIFICATION: Pressed in a traditional Coquard Champagne press, fermented in stainless steel tanks and old Burgundy barriques. No malolactic fermentation.
MATURATION: 15 years after vintage sees these 2009 magnums at the peak of their maturity. Perfect for immediate drinking.
ANALYSIS: Residual Sugar: 8.4g/L. 12.5% ABV.
THE STORY BEHIND ‘THE TROUBLE WITH DREAMS’
It was a bit of divine inspiration that led to this exceptional wine. The monastic order of Catholic priests at Our Lady of England Priory in Storrington West Sussex looked out one day and realised that the land they had could have potential for planting vines. Father Paul McMahon reached out to Dermot with a proposition to plant and nurture a small vineyard at the foot of the South Downs and make wine for the priests. Dermot, always having an eye on the future, spoke with Father McMahon and told him that he’d love to plant a vineyard and make wine for the priests, and perhaps in return, he could take a percentage of the grapes to create his own wine. The delighted Father McMahon agreed immediately.
The grapes were a great success, such a success that the birds flying over the vineyard devoured them all, thus ending the hopes of a 2008 vintage. All their dreams, it seemed, at that point at least, were, quite literally, away with the birds. ‘That’s the trouble with dreams’, demurred Father McMahon, but undeterred, and seeing the great potential to make a single vineyard wine, Dermot pressed on.
The first release from the Sugrue South Downs was a 2009 vintage. The now greedy-bird-protected grapes were another great success. The priest’s statement had always stuck with Dermot though, and when the first bottles of wine were produced, they were named after the quiet musing of Father McMahon. ‘The Trouble with Dreams’ 2009 vintage went on sale in 2013 and rapidly gained critical acclaim.
WINEMAKERS NOTES
“Phenomenal concentration with effortless ease of fruit, composure and completeness. In many ways the epitome of a grand vintage in England, in magnum, at the peak of maturity. Complex, rich and elegant, the fruit remains vivid and while the tertiary flavours and aromas are dominant, the energy and core of lush fruit remains focussed. A sublime example of mature English sparkling wine at its very best.” Dermot Sugrue
