LANGHAM Wine Estate this year celebrates 15 years of the vineyard at Crawthorne Farm, near Dorchester. The anniversary was marked with a party for friends of the winery and vineyard, and the release of an outstanding new still wine.

Managing director Justin Langham said: “I take immense pride in evolving what was once my father’s hobby into the thriving Langham Wine Estate we see today and I am truly delighted to see the estate reach this milestone.

“After visiting many of the world’s most regarded wine regions and having studied viticulture at Plumpton College, I decided to make my dream a reality. We planted 30 acres of vineyard in 2009 and have since expanded to 85 acres. In May, we planted 13,000 new chardonnay vines on the final 10 acres of our planned expansion and are anticipating bountiful harvests in the years to come. Behind our success lies a dedicated team whose passion and expertise produce the exceptional wines within our portfolio. I am very proud of what we have achieved so far.”

With a south-facing aspect, chalk soils and a unique microclimate, Crawthorne Vineyard provides a perfect terroir for ripening the classic Champagne varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Langham Wine Estate prides itself in making wines only using grapes grown on its estate, hand harvesting the grapes and taking a low intervention approach to winemaking.

The winery team is led by Tommy Grimshaw, who worked his way up from the young school-leaver labelling wines to become the UK’s youngest head winemaker when he was just 24 years old. Now 28, he continually strives to be creative in his winemaking, not bound by technical ‘rules,’ with a focus on a low intervention approach, and the results he achieves are outstanding.

Langham’s exceptional wines are not only recognised with gold, silver and bronze medals in this country but have earned the coveted Best Sparkling Wine Producer award at the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) in 2020. Langham Wine Estate’s core range of wines includes Corallian, Culver, Rosé and Blanc de Blancs.

Along with newly planted vines, 2024 has seen Langham’s first still wine since 2020. The 2022 Chardonnay is named after Search for Enlightenment by sculptor Simon Gudgeon, who has his studio and gallery at Sculpture by the Lakes near Dorchester.

The winery’s core focus is sparkling wine – Langham only produces still wines in exceptional vintages, as 2022 undoubtedly was. At harvest, winemaking team Tommy Grimshaw and Andy Wiles agreed that the quality of fruit was high enough to make a still chardonnay, separating a portion of ripe juice from the heavier ‘taille’ fraction of the pressing. Search for Enlightenment is the first wine from the estate to be bottled in reused glass bottles.

To find out more about Langham Wine Estate, please visit langhamwine.co.uk

Pictured: Justin Langham (centre) with the Langham vineyard team; a new vine in June 2024; Langham’s rosé. Photographs by Matt Austin