Spotlight Tasting: Bacchus

It’s been a long time coming, eight years in fact since I did my very first Bacchus Spotlight, and in those eight years how English Wine and the Bacchus category has grown! My very first English still wine was Chapel Down Bacchus and I loved its aromatic and zingy fusion. With the country’s love of crisp wines like the often compared Sauvignon Blanc, and with the Bacchus grape’s resilience in marginal climates, it’s no surprise that the grape has grown in favour of the hearts of both drinkers and winemakers. But that doesn’t mean it’s without its detractors. During my early days of English Wine exploration, many examples of English Bacchus were pretty linear and, dare I say it, samey. A glass full of lime, elderflower and unripe tropical fruits was decently refreshing but perhaps a little one-dimensional for real wine lovers. But winemakers have branched out with different techniques and expressions, and found new ways of bringing out the best in the variety.

With all this progress, I gathered what I believe to be the biggest line-up of still Bacchus ever tasted side-by-side. I then assembled a panel of very capable and experienced English wine tasters, including myself and GBW Editor Stephen Groves, wine advisor Tim KIllen @timsfoodandwinetravels, and good friends and English wine followers Alex Ram and George Biswas, who is brand ambassador and tour/tasting host for Albury Vineyard. I must say that both myself and the rest of the panel were surprised at just how diverse the wines were. Sure, there were a number of middling, perhaps old-fashioned examples, but there was a real expanse of expression, ranging from green and lean, to floral and fragrant, to opulent and tropical, and then the more nuanced oaked and skin contact examples. The skin contact wines in particular felt like a very different style, and so will be branched off into a separate article that I’m calling ‘The Bacchus Mavericks’ – more to come on that soon.

All of the wines on the night were tasted completely blind to ensure no historic or local favouritism. But I must say the top five are particularly interesting, with the wines sitting at fifth to third place all being the cleaner, unoaked style but really elevating themselves above being likened to a Sauvignon Blanc. In my opinion, that comparison sells these wines short. While you get the grassy, gooseberry and lime character that thematically binds Sauvignon Blanc and Bacchus together, Bacchus also brings about intense tropical fruit, delicate florals and then a tingling acidity that proves to be brilliantly moreish.

And then onto the top two wines – probably two of the most stylistically similar in the whole line-up, but still very much wines unto themselves, from different winemakers and regions: I’ve long been a fan of Chapel Down Kit’s Coty Bacchus. The first three vintages of that wine rank up there with some of the very best English still wines I’ve ever tasted, be they Bacchus or any other variety. Personally, I felt the 2019 and 2020 vintages did not reach the electric heights of 2016-2018, but the latest 2021 feels a real return to form with its exuberant concentration, layers of smoke and flint, and delightful tropical fruit and green citrus.

The overall top-ranking wine, with a similar approach to the Kit’s Bacchus, was Flint Bacchus Fumé. What really elevated this wine to the top step of the podium was Flint’s understanding of Bacchus typicity. It was leaner, and greener than the Kit’s wine, but also brought about curious smoky layers and that grilled lime and minty oak character that always makes Flint wines stand out. It has to be said the scores between these two wines were incredibly close, with two of us favouring the Flint, one the Kit’s, and another two scoring both wines equally. Both were clearly the most complex and complete wines of the tasting and quite a step above the other oak barrel-influenced Bacchus we tried.

I asked Flint’s founder and winemaker, Ben Witchell, what he thought was the secret to success in his top-rated Bacchus Fumé. He stated “the skin contact gives texture and the oak softens the tannins that are naturally quite high in Bacchus. I’ve also found since using oak for Bacchus that its porosity helps the wine breathe and it seems to accelerate it on its ageing journey. We’ve found at Flint that Bacchus takes really well to neutral oak. I would be wary of using new oak but neutral oak (3 fills +) opens it up.”

In an interesting move, Flint plan to expand upon the success of the Bacchus Fumé. Ben explained that “we’ve decided to consolidate our two Bacchus wines and just make one, simply called Fumé. This will be our attempt to make what we hope is the best expression of Bacchus and will be predominantly based on juice fermented and aged in neutral oak but with a splash of stainless steel fermented wine to keep that freshness.” It’s a brilliant approach and actively demonstrates Ben’s commitment to producing a superb multi-dimensional Bacchus that stands out from the crowd, something that the 2022 vintage clearly does very well.

Getting on to the fundamentals of the article specifically, I decided that the format would consist of full, detailed tasting notes and insights into the wines that formed our top-scored of all Bacchus tried – over 40 in fact. I have then followed up with 14 further examples, listed in alphabetical order by producer rather than rank, that demonstrated both the typicity and diversity of the grape. As a final thought on this tasting, I really think that all these wines together demonstrate that Bacchus is anything but a one-note Sauvignon Blanc clone. In the right hands, Bacchus can be textural, diverse and, most importantly, absolutely delicious. This tasting has re-ignited my love for the grape and justified why it is still the fourth most grown grape in England, after the increasingly popular trio of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Our Ten Highest Rated Bacchus

The Next Best 14 (In Alphabetical Order)