Faced with the ever-challenging act of balancing parenthood, a day job, and running Great British Wine in what little free time I have, this year has been a quiet year for the website. I’ve been posting stand-alone reviews of some of the great wines I’ve tasted throughout the year as and when possible, but there have not been any Great British Wine round-ups all year, until now!

With Christmas and New Year fast approaching, I’ve taken a look at a selection of some of my favourite new releases from the last few months. From nuanced and complex to smooth and more affordable options, with still and sparkling wines of all styles as well as a brilliant fortified wine from one of the country’s most celebrated winemakers. These are all superb wines that would be more than welcome on my dinner table on Christmas Day, or to celebrate the festivities with friends and family.

Balfour Cuvée Owen Erland Elias 2020

This wine is one half of a duo of new Winemakers’ Collection wines from Balfour. They explore the expression of single-vineyard, single-clone wines crafted by Balfour’s Head Winemaker, Fergus Elias.

Clone 76 Chardonnay is a Dijon clone that is known for its purity and delicacy, and Fergus has treated it with the utmost respect here with a non-Malo, low-dosage (just under 6g/l) approach.

The nose is incredibly pure and fragrant, with bright green apple, white peach and a touch of candied apple and cashew nut brittle.

On the palate there’s a gorgeous ripeness to the fruit. There’s lots of ripe yellow apple and peach, with touches of caramelised nuts and brioche, cut through with a bright chalky minerality and lemon zest immediacy. There’s also a lingering hint of white chocolate in the background, but the overall experience remains brisk and chiselled throughout.

Overall, this is a beautifully refined release, full of grace and tension with lots of subtle complexity. It’s surely set up to continue to improve in the bottle.

Langham x Capreolus Ratafia of England

It’s not a secret that Langham Estate’s winemaker Tommy Grimshaw has made some of my most highly rated English Sparkling this year. He’s had hit after hit with wines like Yarn, Langham Perpetual and JoJo’s Premier Cuvée, but there’s room for one last surprise: enter Ratafia of England.

Ratafia is most known as the Champagne region’s other, sweeter wine. It’s a fortified blend of fresh grape juice and grape-based spirit. For Langham’s first entry into this sector, Tommy has collaborated with Barney Wilczak of Capreolus Distillery. This is truly a meeting of two artists. Barney’s approach, like Tommy’s, is the pursuit of perfection, and this is something I plan to explore more in a future article.

Impressively, 33kg of Langham Pinot Noir goes into each litre of Eau de Vie spirit made from the 2024 vintage, which is then blended with fresh grape juice from this year’s Pinot Noir vintage. The resulting wine is a beautiful balance of the wonderful purity of Barney’s distillation with the complex oxidative approach of Tommy.

The nose is a beautiful sign of the wonders that await the drinker: red apple, dried cranberry, orange and grapefruit zest, with that signature Langham nuttiness, as well as honeyed fruit and orchard blossom notes.

The palate is incredibly visceral; it’s both potent and powerful as well as delicate and perfumed. There’s this hugely complex mix of tangy red fruit and preserved citrus rinds, with a beautifully honeyed and deep nutty, walnut complexity. But the fragrance of the Pinot absolutely sings through too, with raspberry and cherry blossom notes.

This is a fitting epilogue to Tommy’s winemaking triumphs in 2025, and hopefully a sign of things to come from this inspired collaboration with Barney. It’s the must-try release of December.

Oxney Organic Pinot Meunier Blanc de Noirs 2022

Oxney down in Sussex make some of the best Organic English wines out there. I’ve been a little behind in tasting their releases for the last year or so, but I had the chance to taste this hugely memorable Blanc de Noirs earlier in the year, and I thought it would be a brilliant wine to revisit for Christmas.

This is made with 100% Pinot Meunier from the brilliant 2022 vintage; Oxney decided not to put the wine through Malolactic Fermentation because the fruit was so good. The wine spent 18 months on lees and was bottled with zero dosage.

The result is striking and vibrant, and not just because of its copper-tinged hue. The nose is full of redcurrant, red apple and a decidedly complex mixture of roasted nuts, dried herbs and spice.

The palate is bone dry, but the acidity remains in control and well-integrated. There’s a lovely forwardness to the red fruit, cherry and red apple flavours, as well as fascinating textures of winter spice and a touch of salinity. There’s this brilliant savoury spiciness that just feels so festive. I can see this pairing really well with charcuterie.

Busi Jacobsohn Blanc de Blancs 2019

2019 was one of the cooler vintages of the decade, but I had a feeling it would be one of those vintages that made particularly great sparkling wines, especially those made from Chardonnay. This superbly balanced Blanc de Blancs from Busi Jacobsohn is a superb example of that.

On the nose, there’s crisp green orchard fruit, flourishes of peach and floral hints, with gentle brioche warmth.

The palate is beautifully balanced here, with poised tension and crisp green apple and lemon. The palate softens to riper apple and peach flavours, where hints of baked apple, vanilla and brioche also manifest.

This is a superbly balanced Blanc de Blancs, and the perfect wine to kick off Christmas morning with salmon canapés, or perhaps even oysters.

Black Chalk Classic 2022

Black Chalk have been something of a beacon of quality since their arrival on the scene seven years ago with the 2015 vintage. This latest 2022 release continues to build on the Hampshire producer’s reputation for precise yet nuanced English sparkling wines.

This vintage is a blend of 46% Pinot Noir, 42% Chardonnay and 12% Pinot Meunier, with 5.8g/l sugar, 22 months on lees and no Malolactic Fermentation.

Delicate gold in colour, the ripeness of the 2022 vintage sings from the glass with aromas of red apple, fragrant citrus zest and subtle nutty complexities.

Once again, winemakers Jacob Leadley and Zoë Driver have achieved great balance with this wine, the palate balancing striking energy and tension with bright, pure and clean orchard fruit flavours. There’s a lovely generosity of ripe red apple and a hint of yellow plum, with just a hint of almond pastry on the finish.

Overall, this is incredibly elegant and beautifully realised.

Chilcomb Valley Rosé Brut 2022

Chilcomb Valley is a producer that is a little bit under the radar, but their sparkling wines have been consistently excellent over the last few years. Their Rosé Brut 2022 is another great example of this, made from a blend of 50% Chardonnay and 50% Pinot Noir with 18 months on lees.

The nose is fresh and bright, full of red cherry, cranberry and lemon zest with hints of strawberry shortbread.

The palate is superbly balanced, bursting with lively, zesty lemon and cranberry tang, then strawberry and cherry flavours as it opens. There are suggestions of shortbread and a touch of peachy ripeness. It’s a really accomplished rosé, which brings both generosity, but also precision.

We opened a bottle to celebrate with friends this past weekend, and it was very much enjoyed by all. It’s another great choice to start off the festivities on the big day, especially if you prefer something pink-hued. It’s also exceptionally well-priced at £29.00

Winbirri The Grand 2015

The Grand follows in the footsteps of Lee Dyer’s recently released Grand Reserve. Taking influence from the oak-aged wines of Rioja, this 100% Dornfelder spent 36 months maturing in oak barrels, and has spent a further 48 months ageing in bottle prior to release.

This is once again a compelling and brilliant release from Winbirri, which, in my opinion, is unparalleled in England right now.

On the nose, surprisingly bright black fruit (for a ten-year-old English red wine) is met with cured meat, old leather and red rose petal aromas, with quite a big hit of oak spice.

On the palate there’s lots of blackcurrant – the fruit has a lovely acidity and tang to it that balances the deep savoury and spicy notes. Whilst overall this is medium to light-bodied, there’s still a concentration, depth and surrounding oak complexity that is hugely welcoming.

I simply can’t think of a better English red wine to open during the Christmas period. This is brilliant work, and again shows why the Dornfelder grape absolutely should not be written off.

Denbies White Pinot 2020

I’ve been quite a fan of white Pinot Noir or still Blanc de Noirs wines for most of my English Wine journey. One of my early discoveries was a Litmus White Pinot from 2011 which impressed me with its texture and complexity. Litmus is, of course, based out of Denbies Winery in Dorking, and this, Denbies’ latest still wine release, feels intrinsically linked to that early English Wine find of mine.

The wine was fermented in a mixture of five, three, two and one year old French barriques, was left on lees and spent a total of 12 months in oak. Curiously, the wine was bottled in early 2022 and then left for the best part of four years to mature. So it’s at a stage of development that you rarely find in English white wine.

The nose is quite a heady mix of peach, red apple and lemon peel, with suggestions of cranberry, floral and roasted almond.

On the palate there’s a brilliant counterbalance of ripe apple, nectarine and peach flavours with prominent acidity, tangy redcurrant and cranberry hints. There’s also a lovely nutty complexity and soft creaminess, together with the seasoning of French oak that gives a nod to the fine white wines of Burgundy.

Abingworth To A Skylark Cabaret Noir 2024

Abingworth is a brand-new vineyard that have launched their first wines this year, having been planted in 2022. The vineyard is a family operation, based on the historic Champions Farm in West Sussex, which dates back to 1296.

To A Skylark is made from Caberet Noir, an increasingly popular PIWI variety on English soils. The disease-resistant nature of Cabaret Noir makes it ideal in our unreliable climate, and allowed a crop of healthy, clean fruit to be harvested in the difficult year of 2024. The resulting wine was aged in barrel for eight months.

This is medium to light bodied compared to some Caberet Noir that I’ve had, but it’s incredibly supple and rounded. The wine has a ripe cherry, blackberry and slightly plummy warmth, with soft tannin and hints of savoury and spice. Overall, this is a really smooth and pretty expression.

The quality of this wine really demonstrates why PIWI varieties such as Caberet Noir are incredibly relevant.