Winbirri – excellent wines in Norfolk!
If you’d asked me whether I would ever visit in vineyard in Norfolk in 35C heat, enjoying a range of wines from sparkling to still white and even red, I would have said you were mad. But there I was recently with friends at Winbirri outside Norwich doing just that.
Winbirri, combining the Anglo-Saxon words for wine and grape, is the brainchild of Stephen Dyer, a fruit farmer, who established the vineyard in 2007. His son Lee was in Thailand when he got the call to return to England as commercial production started and he is now head winemaker. Lee, one of life’s enthusiasts, is already talking about Winbirri passing down to his own young children.
Lee himself leads the excellent tours which start in the vineyard and then move to the winery where, against a backdrop of large, stainless steel tanks, he explains his dedication to minimal intervention winemaking, with no filtering or fining. In short, to let the grapes speak for themselves. Lee’s knowledge of viticulture and winemaking is encyclopaedic and he has absolute clarity about the wines he wants to make and how to realise his vision.
We then moved to the tasting where Lee showcased five wines and explained how he makes each. First up was his Vintage Reserve Sparkling 2015 which is a classic combination of Champagne grapes and has creamy brioche notes with bracing acidity.
Following this was his Solaris, a German hybrid, which seems to love the Norfolk soil and is remarkably resistant to whatever hazards nature throws at it. Here you’ll find refreshing simple green and yellow apple flavours. A good aperitif.
Next up was his most famous wine – Bacchus – another German hybrid. The 2015 won Platinum Best in Show at the Decanter Wine Awards in 2018 after which he received 27,000 emails asking for an allocation! He said he preferred to remain true to his early supporters and so has rationed the wine while keeping it priced at around £17 a bottle. This is a medium-bodied, aromatic wine with elderflower and tropical fruit flavours and clean, crisp acidity. As he says, a good alternative to New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.
We then moved on to his Pinot Noir Rosé, which was our favourite. This has the pale colour of a Provence-style pink with subtle, fresh, red grapefruit and red berry flavours.
Last but not least we came to red and he presented his Dornfelder, a hybrid typically made into lightish reds in northern Germany. Here Lee had used carbonic maceration to bring out the dark fruit flavours and savoury notes but underpinned this with 18 months of ageing in American oak, giving it a Rioja-style complexity. Quite a hit with high-end restaurants apparently.
And to cap a lovely afternoon we repaired to the wine garden for some rosé coupled with a cheese and charcuterie platter.
English wineries are stepping up across the board in terms of wine tourism and if you live in or are visiting Norfolk do visit Winbirri. Or if you would like to try the wines they are available online from the winery or from Grape Britannia.
