WINE REVIEW
“This is a serious rosé” say The Heretics, who are English Wine supremo Gareth Maxwell and his creative friend Jimmy Hunter. The duo came together to bring distinctive statement wines with bold and impactful branding. If this debut release is anything to go by, it succeeds on both accounts.
Pale in colour, but certainly not in character, the nose is fresh with chalky lemon and pink grapefruit, hints of white pepper and blossom. Of course, then there’s waves of red fruit – cherry, cranberry and raspberry.
With top-notch fruit sourced from Essex’s Missing Gate Vineyard, the grapes were destemmed and held on skins before gentle pressing and fermentation into 3rd, 4th and 5th use oak.
The resulting wine is profound, with the imprint of oak being more textural than flavour profile. The acidity is bright, punchy, with lots of citrus energy and the tang of redcurrant, but the mid-taste has soft cherries, peach and a twist of blood orange. This is how I imagine a fine rosé from Burgundy would taste.
