The second part of my coverage of the Cork & Cask Summer Fair begins with a selection from Uncharted Wines. This has a focus mostly on Westwell Wines from Kent (not exclusively) because, well, they are so good! Second up, Alliance. This is another agency, like Moreno Wines in Part One, which I don’t get to taste often, but I have been buying a few of their wines recently. Naughton Cider Company makes “Champagne Method” artisan ciders in Fife, and Peter Crawford was showing a new, special, cuvée I’d not tasted before. Peter also brought some Champagnes from his Sip Champagne import agency.

I’m also going to mention a few beers because, well, thirsts need quenching. I was going to say in this summer heat, but it has currently dropped to 13 degrees up here in Edinburgh. Our son got home from 42 degrees yesterday and seemed very happy to cool down…just to make everyone down south a little jealous.

Just to recap from Part 1, all prices are to the nearest £, retail at Cork & Cask (136 Marchmont Road, Edinburgh).

Uncharted Wines

I’ve known Uncharted Wines for as many years as they have been going, since 2017, I think. Like many small agencies they focus on smaller artisan domaines, but with a good worldwide spread. They import my favourite New Zealand producer, and have always had their finger on the Beaujolais pulse, in an already crowded market. Co-owner Rupert Taylor has also developed the wine in keg concept, and I think he was one of the first in the UK (maybe even the first) to begin commercialising this form of delivery in his previous role, before founding Uncharted.

Westwell Wines in Kent was taken over by Adrian Pike also in 2017, and he has established this vineyard as one of the most innovative and exciting English wine estates. I’ve written about Westwell enough before so I won’t add much here, except to note that they offer a range of visit options, including various food nights and other entertainments. If you don’t yet know the wines, you will see from the five bottles below that they certainly offer variety.

Westwell Pelegrim NV – Pinots Noir and Meunier plus Chardonnay, very fine and getting better with every release. It has some marked autolytic character, and it does get toasty with age but it also has a bright freshness, steely in youth. At £37 this is one of the best value English sparkling wines out there.

Westwell Unnaturally Petulant Pink 2023 – The same three “Champagne” varieties as Pelegrim. The second fermentation didn’t start so Adrian added some more sugar and yeast to get it going again, prior to bottling, hence the name of this pink petnat. Pale salmon colour, a fruity beauty perfect for summer. It really is! £30.

Westwell Village Chardonnay – My first taste of this (2023). A blend of younger vines planted in 2019 and older vines planted a decade earlier in 2009 (before Adrian arrived). It was made in stainless steel. It’s a bright and crisp wine, closed under screwcap. Dry, lemon, lime and grapefruit. It has less depth than the estate version but it doesn’t lack depth, and scores on freshness and price (£22). Or try a 20-litre keg for £574.59 direct from Uncharted.

Westwell Little Bit – This wine is made from the leftover pressings from Westwell’s sparkling wines. As they are pressed very gently there is still good potential in what remains. They had been experimenting with the third pressing of Pinot Noir and Meunier and in 2023 put it into stainless steel where it underwent a “constantly evolving fermentation”. Floral and fruity (red fruits) and a little texture on the palate in a wine the colour of pale peach skin. This wine works so well because 2023 was such a “fruity” vintage. Although it’s a little different to most pink wines, I can’t think of a better value English Rosé (£18), but this will interest wine obsessives more than supermarket lovers. Just 10% abv.

Westwell Pinot Noir 2023 – Picked late October, 70% of the fruit was destemmed, 30% whole bunches. The grapes were then layered, like a lasagne, in tank to undergo a semi-carbonic maceration. The free-run juice was then moved to another stainless-steel tank to complete fermenting (with indigenous yeasts). A pale Pinot, let it unfurl in the glass to get that ethereal nose of a violet top note underpinned by ripe red cherries. The palate brings in more red fruits, strawberries being particularly attractive. It will age into a more savoury wine if you let it, despite its low, 10.5%, alcohol. I’m thinking pair it with a mushroom wellington.

The label here, like all of those at Westwell, I think, are extra special, and come from illustrations by Adrian Pike’s partner, Galia Durant. Her illustration of Bacchus on “Unnaturally Petulant Pink” is my current favourite.

Village Chardonnay, Pinot and Gus with A Little Bit

Curtimenta Orange 2023, Espera (Alcobaça, Portugal)

This is the token non-Westwell offering I picked from Uncharted, but I’m including it as a prime example of how good Portuguese wine is right now. This may not be as cheap as some wines from a country offering some good prices, but it’s a lovely drop of wine. Curtimenta effectively means “orange wine”, so I guess me calling it “Curtimenta Orange” is as silly as saying “naan bread”, but at least you know what you are getting. Rodrigo Martins is fashioning some nice wines on his five hectares, an hour north of Lisbon.

Arinto and Fernão Pires grapes see three weeks on skins. The colour is between peach skin and light amber, with apricot on the nose along with a floral note, and some mineral texture with the fruit on the palate. Espera means “wait” in Portuguese, and I think that this wine will reward a little patience. That said, it had enough impact last Saturday to get a profile here. £27.

Alliance Wine

Alliance was founded in 1984, in Ayrshire, so a true Scottish importer (they do have a London office but HQ is still up here) which now imports wine from two-hundred producers in more than twenty countries, as well as making wine themselves in France, Spain and Chile. They have a good presence in Scottish retail, but also seem to work with a few wine shops I buy from in London and the South of England.

August Kesseler “The Daily August” Riesling 2024 (Rheingau, Germany)

This is a blend, after separate vinification, of grapes from sites including Hattenheimer Wisselsbrunnen, Erbacher Siegelsberg and Lorcher Schlossberg. The wine sees no oak. It is intended as an easy-drinking dry (12% abv) but fruity every day wine to accompany fish, seafood, salads and white meats. Labelled as a Gutswein but from an esteemed VDP producer, this is juicy, fruity and has racy acidity. £20 for a good Rheingau Riesling, not complex but very enjoyable. There is a Pinot Noir in the same series.

Mosaic White, Domaine Chatzivariti (Paiko PGI, Greece)

Greece is a wine country which gets far less traction in the UK market than it deserves. If you want to see what I mean, try this wine. This estate, which has been operating for just over thirty years, is located in the Goumenissa Region, in Macedonia, Northern Greece. The winery was founded by Vagelis Chatzivaritis, but in 2017 his daughter Chloi returned from overseas and has introduced a low intervention approach.

Roditis, Sauvignon Blanc, Assyrtiko and Xinomavro (a red variety but immediately pressed gently off skins to avoid colour) ferment separately after which their juice is blended and aged on lees for just three months. The fruit fills the mouth, but this is essentially a light wine, a wine that begins with citrus and ends with quince on the finish, along with a bit of texture from the lees. I liked it a lot. £20.

Frappato 2023, Baglio Gibellina (Sicily, Italy)

This Terre Siciliane Frappato intrigued me because, for Frappato, it is quite cheap. It is actually made from vines planted on sandy soils at around 250 masl, in a part of Sicily (Salemi, inland east of Marsala) where much quality viticulture takes place at slightly higher altitudes in the hills. Grapes are picked before they become over-ripe to preserve aroma and vinification in stainless steel helps preserve it further. The result is a wine which won’t challenge the likes of COS Frappato in my affections, yet for £13 seems rather good value. Garnet colour, a surprisingly deep bouquet, a bit of bitterness and texture on the palate and 13% abv, so food won’t spoil it.

Lledoner Pelut Vieilles Vignes 2024, Cami del Drac, Terres Fidèles (Roussillon, France)

Lladoner Pelut (aka Garnatxa Pelluda or Hairy Grenache) is a Grenache mutation known for complexity and intensity, though little is grown. Matassa uses it to good effect, but a varietal Lledoner is quite rare. Alliance has created this wine as part of their project in the Pyrénées. Winemaking is overseen by Fergal Tynan MW (Alliance) and Emmanuel Cazes. They use old parcels of vines in the high Roussillon hills.

The fruit is fermented in stainless steel with a ten-day maceration on skins. It’s another luminous, pale red showing bright red berry fruits and liquorice. It has a hint of rusticity, but in a good way. Its texture means it needs food, but although this is just 12.5% abv, I’m guessing no one is going to choose this as an aperitif. Roussillon lamb might be a good choice, though I should stress that isn’t their suggestion. UK-reared should do, or maybe you appreciate mutton? £15 makes this another great value bottle, which seems to be the theme from Alliance on this occasion.

Naughton Cider

Peter Crawford has orchards on the family farm near Balmerino in Fife, on the banks of the Tay. To place him, we are just over the river from Dundee, and in the other direction, maybe fifteen miles from St Andrews. We are lucky, because this is a very beautiful location, to have good friends who are his near neighbours. However, since I tried my first Naughton Cider (from the wonderful Aeble Cider Bar and Shop in Anstruther) I have not managed a trip to Fife to coincide with Peter being around.

The ciders I describe below are all made by the same method as Champagne. Primary fermentation uses Champagne yeasts and takes place in barrels previously used in that region. The apple must is aged on lees for ten months or so before bottling, when it then undergoes its second fermentation (just like Champagne). The mousse is created by adding more Champagne yeast at this point, along with a dosage of sugar, before spending, depending on the cuvée, at least two years on the yeasts in bottle before disgorging by hand.

Overture blends cider apples and culinary varieties which are “vinified” (I don’t think “pommified” exists) in a mix of oak and stainless steel. This is crisp and fruity with a touch of complexity well-described as a mix of “bittersweet and bittersharp”. 7.7% abv, £20.

Brut Vintage 2021 blends eating and cooking varieties, again part-fermented in oak, and is probably the main cuvée at Naughton. A citrus-dominated bouquet (more than apple, I’d say) leads to a palate that has green apple acids and some noticeable salinity, and even a bread/brioche/biscuit element adding complexity and the sense of bottle age. 7.6% abv, £24.

Le Clos 2020 is made from ten different varieties of eating and cooking apples picked from a single, south-facing, walled orchard at the farm. Made in Champagne oak barrels (10 months), and then undergoing second fermentation and matured 44 months on lees in bottle, this is an elegant cider. It is nutty, citrussy, and hints at honey and toffee apple. It is also saline too, and still very fresh on the tongue. It comes in at a slightly higher 8.3% alcohol. The vintage produced just 295 bottles, so it will cost you £45 a pop, but this is among the finest UK ciders I’ve sipped. That’s even more expensive than the Swiss Cidrerie du Vulcain’s cuvées I’ve tried, but I would imagine some of Michelin’s finest would list this if they could get some.

Peter Crawford is also one of the founders of Sip Champagne, and he had brought along some bottles which I understand may find their way to Cork & Cask at some point soon. A couple I tasted are included here.

Champagne Paul Clouet Sélection Grande Réserve

I have been hearing about Champagne Paul Clouet but don’t know the wines. They are based on the southern side of the Montagne de Reims, at Ambonnay, but have vines on the Côte des Blancs as well. This multi-vintage blend of all three major Champagne grape varieties (PN 50%, Ch 30%, PM 20%), I think all from the Montagne, has a 2015 base plus reserve wines. It was disgorged November 2019 and dosed at 7g/l.

It’s a well-made fruity Champagne, balanced despite a higher dosage than many these days, and a wine which will show a bit of complexity in the right glass (not a flute, perhaps), and will gain more in a year or two if more mature Champagne is your proclivity. At an expected retail price of around £37 it is far more in line with what I’d prefer to pay than the more optimistic prices of some producers. If that price is reasonably correct, I could easily see myself grabbing some.

Champagne Delouvin/Nowack Delouvin Meunier Perpétuel

I do like a good Meunier Champagne (Prévost when I could once afford it). This is a gem, from a single cru, Vandières in the Marne (near Châtillon-sur-Marne) and made from a solera/perpetual reserve started in 1992. This bottling contains fruit from 1992 to 2020. The family baton is currently with tenth generation Geoffrey Delouvin, who works 7.5 ha all close to the winery in Vandières.

As well as an interest in Meunier I have something of a thing for Champagnes formed in a perpetual reserve. Bérèche Reflet d’Antan ranks highly in my top half-dozen subjective favourite Champagnes. There is always complexity, and maturity, if you like such a style. This has those things. It also has a nice fresh salinity. Even at £47 on Sip’s web site it still represents good value when you consider what a “solera” Champagne might cost you today.

Some Beer

I don’t drink beer by the gallon but I do like it. I have certain favourites, Kernel being one I regularly drank back in London and Brighton. In summer it’s nice to try something a bit different, and we are, after all, blessed with some very fine brewers up here around Edinburgh. They are what I’d call genuine craft brewers.

Pilot Rosé Sour: Pilot are in Leith, of course, Edinburgh’s port area. They literally started out in Matt Johnson’s garage in 2011. Fourteen years on, they have a thriving business but have remained staunchly independent. I’ve been a fan of their Peach Melba Sour for summer drinking but this “Rosé” was brewed to mark the opening of their bar, Vessel. Rosé is a lager made with the addition of red and white grape juice. An elegant sour for, perhaps, wine lovers after a tasting (the traditional palate cleanser is always a beer). c£3/330ml.

Campervan Puffin Isles Gose: Campervan is also based in Leith, though they claim to have been born in 1973 in, you guessed, a garage (in which there also lived a campervan belonging to nascent brewer, Paul Gibson), but the commercial craft brewery was opened in Leith in 2017, and Paul is now managing director. They also have a tap room in Leith (technically Bonnington) at 112 Jane Street. Puffin Isles is a Gose-style, made with Scottish pale ale and wheat malt, with Scottish sea salt and coriander seeds. 4.2% abv, £4.50/440ml. Puffin Isles is gluten free. We have a thing for puffins here, I should mention. Also look for the Campervan radlers (lemon/lime, Grapefruit/mandarin) and if you want low alcohol, try that 0.5%er in the photo next to our Puffin.

Vault City Blood Orange Radler: Vault City Brewery claims to be the UK’s largest sour beer producer but these beers still have a real artisan quality to them, despite brewing half-a-million litres every year. They are in Portobello, Edinburgh’s seaside (well worth a visit). The tap room is close to the centre of Edinburgh. Late last year City Vault announced that its excellent Portobello Tap Room was to close. A real shame as I only discovered it last year. Anyway, this Radler is very fruity, juicy, and 3.4% abv. £2.50/330ml.

Futtle Organic Wheat Beer with Bay: The “East Neuk” describes the Fife coast as it stretches up the northern coast of the Firth of Forth, towards the picture postcard beauty of the fishing village of Crail. The Fife Coastal Path allows a string of attractive villages and rugged coastline to be enjoyed. We try to walk a part of it at least once or twice every year and it is so far only on this side of the water that we have seen dolphins (including from the back garden of Crail’s very good Harbour Café). Crail also has what has been described as one of Scotland’s best seafood shacks, Reilly & Sons (only Sat/Sun at the harbour, but North Berwick’s Lobster Shack is open every day in the summer months if you are heading over our way).

Futtle Brewery is just outside one of those villages (St Monans) at Bowhouse, where it also has a shop and tap room. There is also a shop in Dundee, over the Tay to the north. Futtle makes what they call “natural beers”, with spontaneous fermentations, and following the “farmhouse brewing tradition of Northern Europe”. Their approach is also to make beers which follow the seasons. At the Fair they were showing their East Neuk Pale Ale on draught, plus organic lager and this organic wheat beer from can. I think their very good table beer is sold out right now.

Made with three types of organic wheat (including one spelt), and using bay branches to make a filter bed for the mash. This gives nice bay aromatics in a beer that is light and refreshing. 3.4% abv, c£4/330ml.

All of these breweries allow visits, but check opening times and whether an appointment is necessary. Not all, as you will read above, have a tap room on-site. They do all have web sites. The Vault City site has some astonishingly wacky drinks on it. Mango Chilli Margarita, Foggy Lemonade, or maybe Sudden Death X Vault City Doggo’s Delight Pastry Sour anyone?

If you fancy a trip to Fife, Bowhouse (where Futtle is based) has a very highly regarded mostly food and drink market on the second weekend of every month except January.