Westwell Wine Estates

The Pilgrims' Way is one of England's oldest paths, used since the Stone Age by travellers moving along the chalk ridge of the North Downs toward Canterbury. It passes the edge of Westwell Wine Estates' vineyard at Charing, and Adrian Pike, who bought and expanded the estate from 2017, named his flagship sparkling wine Pelegrim, the medieval English form of pilgrim, in acknowledgment of this ancient company. Pike was, before wine, the founder of Moshi Moshi Records, and the indie sensibility he brings to the estate sits pleasingly alongside the serious winemaking ambitions he has developed since.

The Pelegrim NV is the wine that makes Westwell's reputation. Made by the traditional method from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier grown on North Downs chalk and aged 36 months on its lees, it is bottled at 5 bars of pressure rather than the 6 bars typical of most traditional-method sparkling wines. The lower pressure produces a softer mousse, less aggressive on the palate, with a creamier integration of bubble and liquid that some tasters find more pleasurable than the standard fizzing pressure of conventional English sparkling. Forest Wines, a London wine specialist, described it as a hidden gem easily on par with a good Champagne, a comparison that the wine's mineral precision and autolytic depth supports.

Westwell also makes Wicken Foy, a lighter sibling to the Pelegrim with 18 months on lees, and a Special Cuvée Late Disgorged from the 2015 base vintage that spent five years on its lees before release. The Ortega still wines draw on a variety better known in Germany, producing wines with a floral stone-fruit character that is quite unlike the Bacchus-dominant aromatic whites of East Anglia. Biodynamic preparations are used in the vineyard, and the minimal-intervention philosophy extends to the winery.

The cellar door is open Thursday through Saturday without booking, with bar and shop hours extending to 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays, and wine served with local cheese and charcuterie. The combination of chalk cellar, biodynamic viticulture, lower-pressure sparkling, and the ancient path running past the vines gives Westwell an atmosphere entirely its own in Kent's wine landscape.