Simpsons Roman Road Chardonnay

Charles and Ruth Simpson have been making award-winning wines in the South of France since 2002. In 2012, attracted by the quality of the terroir and the opportunity to become part of one of the most dynamic wine producing regions in the world, they brought their expertise back to the UK.

They planted 30 hectares of vineyards on the iconic chalk terroir of the North Downs and built a state-of-the-art gravity fed winery. In 2016, the Simpsons saw their first harvest. With a strong focus on provenance, they produce a highly-acclaimed range of exclusively estate-grown still and sparkling wines. 

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.