Cheers! Lympstone Manor launches its own bubbly

Luxury Devon country house hotel Lympstone Manor has announced the launch of its 2020 Classic Cuvée under its “Lympstone Manor Estate” label.

Five years after Chef and owner Michael Caines MBE planted 17,500 vines in 2018, the long-anticipated launch marks the first sparkling wine produced from the hotel’s own vineyard, to sit alongside its award-winning 2020Triassic Pinot Noir, launched in 2022.

Michael has long been passionate about the evolution of English wine and in 2018, created the Lympstone Manor Vineyard with the aim to produce high-quality English sparkling wine utilising the noble Champagne varieties Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier.

In partnership with Devon’s Lyme Bay Winery, two wines, to date, have been produced from the Lympstone Manor estate – the 2020 Triassic Pinot Noir, a rich red Pinot Noir christened ‘Triassic’ as a nod to the ancient UNESCO heritage Devon coastline on which the vineyard shares its home and the new Classic Cuvée sparkling wine.

The estate will also launch a still Rosé Wine in addition to the Classic Cuvée, to be named “Isabeau” after Michael’s daughter. The Lympstone Manor Estate 2022 Isabeau Rosé is produced from the “taille” pressing at the winery and is a field blend of the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Meunier grapes, it is very much in the classic Provencal style with bright fruit and citrus notes underpinned by fine minerality and balanced by mouthwatering acidity.

This will be followed by further releases of wine including a barrel aged Chardonnay next year to mark the 7th anniversary of the opening of the hotel.

Michael said: “It’s an incredible milestone for Lympstone Manor Hotel to launch its first Classic Cuvée from the 2020 vintage, under the Lympstone Manor Estate title, an award-winning single vineyard estate with a growing collection of wines.

"I would have never imagined saying “award winning”, when I was inspired to plant a vineyard back in 2015, but it was instinctive decision, inspired by my travels to vineyard locations all over Europe.

"This was just the start of an incredible journey that we have shared with Lyme Bay Winery, who are getting a growing reputation for producing award winning English wines.

"The 2022 harvest saw the diversification of our portfolio with the addition of our first still Rosé wine, Isabeau, the production of a barrel fermented still Chardonnay and sparkling Blanc de Noirs, all designed with a focus on being food friendly, high in quality and representing the full expression of the grape varieties grown on this unique site.”