Introducing our first Pinot Gris: Tank Five
With the release of our 2023 Tank Five, we spoke to our Assistant Winemaker Megan Rayner-Ward to get a deeper dive into our still white wine.
Tasting note
An intense nose of honeysuckle, pear, peach and lemon zest. The palate has vibrant acidity, a textural element-flavours echoing the nose, with a hint of bitter almond on the finish.
What would you serve it with?
“A nice creamy pasta dish, fish, salads with citrus flavours, a light pork dish – it’s a great food wine!”
What was the inspiration for Pinot Gris?
“I like this variety in general, but after trying a few Pinot Gris from England, I was very impressed with the style and thought it showed good potential in the UK. Chardonnay is another great variety grown in the UK, but better for our sparkling range.
I wanted to make a Pinot Gris because it has really nice aromatics, a good mouth feel, and should age well in bottle. Pinot Gris is delicate, so is a great food pairing wine – perfect for our restaurant Chalk.”
How was this wine made?
Tank Five embraces experimentation in the winery. Each harvest the winemaking team selects parcels of grapes which they feel will make the best still wine from each harvest.
“We put the grapes into the press on a standard champagne cycle because its gentle – pressing to 70%. The juice was fermented with a specific yeast to enhance aromatics and minerality, with 7 % of the Pinot Gris being fermented in a 5th fill French barrel. For blending we trialled different percentages of our Wiston Broadwoods Chardonnay reserve from our 2022 vintage. We used a blend of 95% Pinot Gris (from the 2023 vintage) sourced from our partner grower in Kent, and 5% from the Wiston Broadwoods reserve. This gave us a true reflection of Pinot Gris, with good salinity and structured minerality.”
2023 was a challenging growing year, the fruit came in with good credentials for making still wine with sugar levels relatively high for the year and spot on acidity.
How does this differ from Sparkling Wine?
“We manage the grapes in similar way – with gentle pressing. We pressed the Pinot Gris to a slightly higher percentage at 70%. This meant we got more extraction from skins to reduce acidity, as we don’t want it to be too acidic like we do for our sparkling wines. We also don’t want as much oak as our sparkling wine. We used one French oak barrel to add complexity without it being the forefront of the wine. This means a much earlier release, unlike sparkling -which take longer to mature.”
Does this wine present different challenges in winemaking to sparkling wine production?
“I know what to expect from our other varieties – Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay – and how this should reflect in the finished bottle. As this was our first Pinot Gris, it was a new experience for us working with this variety in our winery.
It was an exciting new challenge to make something for more immediate consumption as opposed to a sparkling wine destined to be on the shelf in 3, 5 or even 10 years! To start with, the analysis which help to determine harvest are completely different to that of sparkling. We also looked for influence from skin contact by pressing to a higher percentage which imparts those heightened aromatic characters, and adds a textural element.”
