WINE REVIEW
In 2020, Balfour Winery’s Fergus Elias put out a wine that challenged the status quo for English red wine. Inspired by Beaujolais Nouveau, and released appropriately in the last week of November (just a month or so after harvest), Balfour Nouveau entertained with its vibrant cherry aura and playful youth.
It’s taken five years for a follow-up to arrive and, thanks to the exceptional 2025 harvest in England, Balfour Nouveau 2025 is now here.
This latest Nouveau is made from fruit from Crouch Valley’s Creeksea Vineyard using the GM 20-13 clone of Pinot Noir. The wine went through semi-Carbonic whole berry fermentation, following a 24-hour cold soak, then spent a short period in older French barrels.
Fergus says: “It is about confidence. We are showing that English Pinot Noir has the ripeness, the fruit and the finesse to stand on its own. This is a wine that I really could not have made even ten years ago, but our industry is maturing fast and we can now produce internationally important styles. So we thought, why wait until France says it is time to celebrate?”
The wine certainly looks the part, with intense cherry red and magenta hues, and a vibrant nose of youthful cherry, raspberry and hints of damson and floral notes too.
The palate is pleasingly plush and rounded, with a sea of cherry and ripe summer red berry flavours and those deeper black fruit flavours – perhaps now a signature of the Crouch Valley – adding depth and structure.
This is a more grown-up expression compared to the 2020 entry, with very subtle oak integration to enable the superb ripeness of the 2025 Pinot Noir to do all the talking.
