Danbury Ridge Chardonnay

Danbury Ridge was founded by two generations of the Bunker family: Michael and Heather Bunker and, their daughters Janine and Sophie. The first vines were planted in 2014 with a focus on Chardonnay and Pinot Noir varieties which would take advantage of the micro climate in Essex. 

In 2020, the family took the decision to remove herbicide use across thier vineyards and now use mechanical weeding in the growing season and a local flock of 25 sheep over the winter. The sheep graze the vineyards keeping the grass short and removing weeds without compacting the earth or harming the vines. To balance soil nutrients and provide the vines with everything they need, they compost all grape marc post-harvest and utilise it across our estate vineyard.

The winery is also designed to be energy effient with solar panels on the side of the building and reusing any waste water. 'Reduce, Reuse and Recycle" is the ethos for this family run winery. 

The variety originated in the Burgundy wine region of eastern France, but is now grown all over the world, from England to New Zealand. The Chardonnay grape itself is neutral, with many of the flavours commonly associated with the wine being derived from influences such as terrior and oak.

In cool climates like northern France or England you would expect flavours of orchard fruits like apples, pears and green plums but in the warmer climbs of California in the USA or Adelaide in Australia you may see tropical fruits, sometimes even banana. 

Chardonnay is well adapted to taking on flavours from its surroundings, for example fermenting or ageing in oak gives the wine flavours of vanilla, smoke and toast. It is most often used as a single variety in still wines but is equally successful blended into some of the best sparkling wines in the world, incuding Champagne and English sparkling wine.