A Winemaker’s Dream and Other Stories

Ten years ago we embarked on a quest to find something so improbably flawless that we wondered whether it could even exist.

A viticultural holy grail.

A single, magical place where the genius of England’s chalk soils might combine with the protective warmth of its extensive coastline, and the idiosyncrasy of site, to produce a winemaker’s dream. 

Ten fruitless years of looking and then, just last year, we finally found our ‘grail’.

Above the village of Brighstone, on the Isle of Wight, just a mile from the sea, the south-facing chalk downland rises to a height of 175 metres, before falling precipitously to ancient grassland, meadow and pasture at its feet 

Usually such land, so close to the sea, would be windswept, unsuitable for planting of any kind.

But in a geological mutation unrepeated anywhere on the south coast of the island, the land, in this single place, then rises miraculously again to a height of 110 metres, sheltering the southerly slopes behind it from the sea to create a chalk valley of quite exceptional warmth (and, as it happens, great beauty).

A valley in which the silent assassin of late spring-frosts does not venture, and where the chalk soils and carefully selected champagne clones can combine, in undisturbed warmth, to produce the perfect balance of crisp acidity and sweetness, as well as saline minerality, that lie at the heart of all great sparkling wine.

Most of the past fourteen months have been spent acquiring, preparing and then planting these wonderful slopes to create vineyards of outstanding quality and beauty. Which explains why you have heard so little from us in the meantime.

What time we’ve had to spare has been spent winning some wonderful new by-the-glass listings in such ‘iconic’ venues as Wiltons, The Goring, The Peninsula, Isabel and Casa Cruz, and Gold in Notting Hill, to name but a few. 

And in entertaining existing clients of Coates & Seely at home, where Mrs Coates has this year bravely combined local food ingredients from the vineyards and surrounding land with her culinary talents to feed 3 Michelin-starred restaurants ‘The Fat Duck ‘and ‘Core by Clare Smyth’ (each of whom serves Coates & Seely by-the-glass and each involving a sleepless night beforehand), with such other outstanding restaurants as Elystan Street, Scotts Mayfair and Richmond, the Randolph Oxford and the Four Seasons Hampshire, again to name but a few.

Finally, looking ahead, Christmas beckons once more, and the good news at Coates & Seely is that we have, in addition to our usual Brut Reserve NV and Rosé NV wines, a new (and superb) Blanc de Blancs NV, as well as three exciting vintage sparkling wines of exceptional quality. 

We wish you and your families  a Very Happy and Peaceful Christmas.