WINE REVIEW
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.
