Burgundy meets Danbury
One of Burgundy’s most prestigious wine estates, Domaine Duroché, has formed a joint venture with Danbury Ridge Wine Estate in Essex. The partnership came about after Pierre Duroché, fifth-generation winemaker of the family-run Domaine, tasted Danbury’s 2021 Pinot Noir. So impressed was he by the wine, he decided to collaborate on a “small batch cuvée” to be released in 2028.
Duroché will travel to Danbury Ridge for the 2025 harvest and winemaking season to help craft the wine. He told The Times that the quality of the Essex Pinot Noir was such that he felt compelled to work with the estate.
The move follows recent comments from Olivier Leflaive, another major Burgundy name, who admitted that the French “need to be worried” about Pinot Noir from Essex.
New projects and new praise
Duroché is not the only Burgundian winemaker setting his sights on the county. Alex Moreau, of Domaine Bernard Moreau, has partnered with Missing Gate vineyard in Woodham Ferrers to produce a new Chardonnay.
“We’re never going to compete on quantity. We just can’t do the volume of grapes so we need to drive quality upwards,” said Missing Gate owner Nick Speakman. “That’s why we have a very low density of planting with very wide rows to reduce chemical requirements and to try and make something with a bulletproof taste, hardened for months.”
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