Sugrue: highly acclaimed English sparkling wines

Sugrue makes some of the very best English sparkling wines. Ever since first release in 2013, these wines have been met with enthusiasm from the critics. We rate Sugrue’s wines very highly indeed at Cuchet&co and think their success is richly deserved.

The quality of the wines comes as no surprise when you consider Dermot Sugrue’s background. He worked at L’Eglise Clinet before moving to Nyetimber, and then the highly acclaimed Wiston Estate. This is a winemaker who is behind some of the very finest wines in England.

Stylistically, Sugrue’s approach is to combine freshness and acidity with palate texture. To maximise the quality of the fruit, Sugrue avoids man-made chemicals in the vineyard; an approach not without risks in the damp UK climate. In the winery, the grapes are gently pressed, then undergo a slow fermentation in a mixture of stainless steel and old oak. Sugrue prefers to block malolactic fermentation, which is not easy with high acid English fruit. The final technical challenge is to avoid filtration. This is rarely possible in sparkling winemaking, but gives extra vibrancy to the wines.

The result is a superb range of wines on a par with top grower Champagne. Four different cuvees are made. Two are single vintage wines: The Trouble With Dreams and Cuvee Boz. The Trouble with Dreams is a blend of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot Noir. Cuvee Boz is a blanc de blancs named after Sugrue’s late brother. The third wine, ZODO, is a multivintage blend with zero dosage. The final wine is the prestige cuvee Dr Brendan O’Regan. This is named after another family member and is a multivintage blend made from Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. Production is tiny: only 5,000 bottles per year are made.

The future is bright for Sugrue. In 2023, Dermot Sugrue stepped away from other projects to make his own label his sole focus. With new investment from backers including Robin Hutson (co-founder of Hotel du Vin and The Pig) he has bought some further vineyard land. Numerous new wines, all to be made in small volumes, are in the pipeline.

This is a top-notch operation which shows just how good English sparkling wine can be.

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