Highweald Brut Reserve NV

Welcome to another English Sparkling with Tweedy video. Sorry yet again, it's just my back garden. Another one from that mix case from Great Britannia. This is a producer that's new to me actually. I've heard of them, I keep seeing this name pop up and I've never got around to trying them. They're called High Weald, as you would expect they are from the High Weald, that area of traditionally woodland forest, was it woodland, that runs between Kent and Sussex between the North and South Downs. I think they're actually based in Sussex, aren't they, rather than the Cuckfield, West Sussex. Sorry, I seem to be just forging ahead rather than saying anything meaningful about the wine. The description on the back says it's a blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meurnier, so I'm expecting to find more Chardonnay than Pinot Noir or Pinot Meurnier. I think I was recently in another video talking about wine, a wine being Chardonnay dominant and when I say that what I often mean is just that is the single biggest ingredient, but it doesn't necessarily mean it by itself is bigger than the other two, if you know what I mean. Anyway, a sort of yellowy gold hue to that, we're getting more quite a yellowy tinge to that which is interesting and I think my first impression on the nose there is Chardonnay-esque. It's got that slight sort of buttery quality that you can get from Chardonnay. I suppose you can get a sort of buttery-like richness out of Pinot Meurnier as well, but it's a particular kind of sort of buttery quality that I think is often to do with Chardonnay having an oak interaction and or just can be a side effect of autolytic character and Chardonnay. I'm once again thinking of, yeah, a slight hint of custard and custard pears, was it custard apple, custard pear, something like that, sort of vanilla-y note I think there is what I'm getting at. Yeah, custard-y, vanilla-y, not pre-swirl at least, obviously a particular fruit other than the custard apple I just mentioned there which is vanilla-y. Maybe there's a bit of subtle orchard fruit, something ever so slightly tropical actually now I think about it. I think that's going to need a bit of agitation. A nice sense of freshness now without necessarily being a specific fruit still. Probably slightly citrus-y, slightly apple-y. There's still that sort of background of buttery richness there which I like actually, it's nice. Well, on the palate more of the same. A nice bit of zing to begin with, some nice tingly mineral flashes there and again not such an obvious fruit character. Again slightly thinking of tropical, a little bit of apple, a little bit of citrus. It's nicely mouth-filling and mouth-watering at the same time and yeah I like that slight mineral, slightly saline tingle to it. It's good. Let's read their tasting notes, what does it say? Vervacious and elegant with complex aromas of acacia and orchard fruit and a vibrant refreshing palette of brioche, white apricot, peach and almond. Yeah okay, apricot, yeah perhaps I'm getting a bit of that and some of that buttery richness I was describing might be veering into something nutty I suppose. I don't know if there's much more to add, it's very pleasant, it's nice. I'll put the price down there, I can't remember off the top of my head. Not earth-shattering but very drinkable, very pleasant. Cheers!