TN Sugrue, Bonkers Zombie Robot Alien Monsters From The Future Ate My Brains (Sur Lie)

Tom Cannavan

Tom Cannavan

Administrator
Sugrue, Bonkers Zombie Robot Alien Monsters From The Future Ate My Brains (Sur Lie)
East Sussex, England, Dry White, Cork, 12.5% abv
93/100
The first still wine from sparkling wine maestro Dermot Sugrue and his wife Ana is as quirky as its name. It is in fact the first issue of a solera of Chardonnay, the 2022 component aged in small barrels, the 2023 in large barrels, with a proportion made in an oxidative style. It displays a flinty, herbal character but elegantly smoothed by almond and creamy ripe, honeyed apple. The palate shimmers with vibrant sherbet lemon and ripe grapefruity vivaciousness. It has a flinty drive and freshess, a bittersweet ripple of citrus, the finish long and intense like a blood orange straight from the freezer.

£29.00 direct from sugruesouthdowns, it joins the small group of seriously world class English still Chardonnays for me.

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Richard_Brooks said:
I should give them another go. I tried one of the fizzy wines a while back, and it was repulsive. Confected, plastic-sweet and vomity. Puts one off.
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I really liked this as you can tell from the note - don't think there was any confection that I was conscious of - or at least, not in a bad way: I guess the whole concept of the wine is pretty much 'confected', but not in terms of being sweet or cloying.
 
kevin heatherington said:
Thanks for this Tom, I will give it a go. You mentioned a couple of others in your article on English wines from last July but are there others who you consider making the best still English Chardonnay?
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The Gusbourne Guinevere is normally very reliable (and good) but among the best would be special cuvees from Balfour, then Black Book, Lyme Bay, and if you see a release by Chapel Down of the Kit's Coty Chardonnay it would be worth trying, though I think only produced sporadically. All of those have scored 90+ from me.
 
Davy Strange said:
This honeyed/baked apple aroma is a real turn off for - it just says 'oxidised'. So many Alsace Rieslings reek of it after a few years in the cellar because hardly anyone in Alsace knows how to make stable wines.

I'm very pleased you enjoyed it, if I get the chance to taste it without paying for it I will approach it with positive aspect!
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When white burgundy is described as 'honeyed' I assume that it's knackered.
 
Well, this is made partly in a deliberately oxidative style, but don't read too much into the single word 'honeyed' in the whole TN: it is very, very far from being baked or, indeed, knackered, as hopefully the rest of the note makes clear. I'm bemused that people can ignore "The palate shimmers with vibrant sherbet lemon and ripe grapefruity vivaciousness. It has a flinty drive and freshess," and say the wine sounds like it is oxidised and knackered because of one word! :);):confused::cool:
 
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Tom Cannavan said:
Well, this is made partly in a deliberately oxidative style, but don't read too much into the single word 'honeyed' in the whole TN: it is very, very far from being baked or, indeed, knackered, as hopefully the rest of the note makes clear. I'm bemused that people can ignore "The palate shimmers with vibrant sherbet lemon and ripe grapefruity vivaciousness. It has a flinty drive and freshess," and say the wine sounds like it is oxidised and knackered because of one word! :);):confused::cool:
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Fair enough, I shouldn't sample just one word.

Tom Cannavan said:
it joins the small group of seriously world class English still Chardonnays for me.
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World class?! Wow, that's a seriously positive piece of praise for English wine! How far we've come - brilliant!!
 
Davy Strange said:
World class?! Wow, that's a seriously positive piece of praise for English wine! How far we've come - brilliant!!
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I think so Davy. It's really not so long ago - maybe a decade - that I would have said England was not capable of making a great still wine from Chardonnay (or Pinot Noir) and that sparkling wines were the only ones worthy of consideration. But even with my relatively limited experience of a few dozen examples over that time my opinion has gradually been changing. I know at least a couple of people from the forum have taken the plunge on the Sugrue wine, so it will be interesting to get their take on it. For me 93 points definitely makes it 'World Class'.
 
Alex Lake said:
I've always wondered what "World Class" meant. Still don't really know!
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Well, it's not a term precise enough to be defined I think, but when I use it in relation to wine I'm thinking it's a wine capable of holding it's own against very good examples from anywhere.
 
I think the phrase sounds best in a Glaswegian accent with a pronounced rolling of the 'r' - Sir Alex Ferguson sometimes described Wayne Rooney as worrrld class, and allegedly not necessarily just for his prowess in front of goal.
 
Ian Hampsted said:
I think the phrase sounds best in a Glaswegian accent with a pronounced rolling of the 'r' - Sir Alex Ferguson sometimes described Wayne Rooney as worrrld class, and allegedly not necessarily just for his prowess in front of goal.
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I'd rather have a Scottish rolling rs any day, rather than the American invention of completely eliminating them from the language. I remember ordering a blueberry scone, somewhere in the High Sierras, and asking if they had butter. The person serving looked glazed and just kept repeating "Buh-TTurh?" as if a mystical incantation. When no dairy product was forthcoming, I tried again with "burrer" and she got it instantly.
 
I’ve not tasted this one (yet) but I have tasted multiple vintages of the Danbury Ridge which is very good but not as good as the Black Chalk Rumour Has It (made from Essex grapes) which I think is very Chablis like (but that’s just my opinion). I would drink the Rumour over the Danbury any day of the week.
 
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