The new Danbury Ridge site near Canewdon in Essex.
Danbury Ridge prospected the land due to its unusual geological make-up.
John Atkinson MW, consultant for Danbury Ridge, had noticed the quality of the 2020 Essex vintage ‘despite high rainfall’. This prompted him to research soil properties, initially together with Lee Jones of the British Geological Survey.
Atkinson then developed a detailed map focusing on the ‘plasticity of London Clay’, which he said ‘stretches from Windsor to Margate to Harwich’. While this covers a vast area, ‘extreme plasticity at the surface is very rare, as is the case in Bordeaux,’ he added.
This plasticity is mainly due to the presence of the mineral smectite which has immense water-holding capacity but makes it difficult for vine roots to extract that water, creating a positive stress situation conducive to high quality fruit.
This ‘ability to hold water and release it slowly’, is key to fruit quality, according to Atkinson and works to a vine’s advantage in both dry and wet years.
Plantings in the new Danbury Ridge site will be 80% Pinot Noir and 20% Chardonnay. Establishment of the vines will be slow as they struggle to take root in this environment and Atkinson does not expect a first crop until later this decade.
The new site will take the producer’s total plantings to 17ha.
‘Chosen terroirs are rare, though estuarine Essex is quite blessed overall,’ Atkinson said.
Canewdon is south of the River Crouch, in the Rochford district of Essex, an area hitherto
