Sugrue South Downs Bonkers Chardonnay Still Wine 2.0, Sussex, England – 0000

This is a crazy wine with a crazy name – but it tastes amazing! According to Jancis Robinson MW it marks “a new chapter in English winemaking. Hugely distinctive”.

Bonkers is a mix of 3 vintages – 2022, 2023 and 2024 – from Sugrue’s best Chardonnay vineyards  in the South Down hills of Sussex in southern England. The Chardonnay was aged in a mix of French and American oak barrels and casks, some of which, like in Sherry or the Jura region, had a covering of Flor to protect against oxidation.

The result is a multi-dimensional, solera-aged Chardonnay: rich, creamy, and savoury with a nutty, honeyed complexity from its elevage in large and small barrels, French and American, old and new. A touch of carefully controlled oxidation is balanced by freshness and a fine structure. It is pure, elegant, complex and classy – a mix in style between Chablis, Chassagne Montrachet and the Jura region with an unmistakable bite of English acidity. While delicious now, it will gain further complexity over the next decade or more.

According to Neal Martin of Vinous, this is “the best wine name of the year, probably ever. Quite delicious.”

Jane Macquitty of the Times newspaper describes it as “England’s finest white wine; an intense, flinty, utterly delicious Grand Cru Chablisesque mouthful!”