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CALDERMOOR

A row of vines climbing a pale slope towards a low evening sun, the leaves lit from behind.

Estate & flint cellar

Forty hectares of south-facing chalk.
Eight wines a year.

One chalk hill, planted a row at a time since 1994, and a flint cellar cut nine metres into it. Everything we make is grown on the slope and waits in the cellar until it is ready.

Book a tasting The current release

Chalk at 40 cm · Cellar 11 °C

Now pouring · Blanc de Blancs 2019

Above the sea, foot to crest
38–96 m
Topsoil before the chalk
40 cm
The flint cellar, all year
11 °C
Release: Blanc de Blancs
2019
The estate’s hill in the last low sun: rows of staked vines running across the slope, the valley below lost in haze.

It faces 172°, just east of due south, and runs to 14% at its steepest; 28 of the forty hectares are under vine, in 1,240 rows, every one worked by hand.

I · The slope

One hill, turned to the south.

The vines climb a single chalk hill from the stream at its foot to the beech wood on its crest. It faces the afternoon, drains within the hour after rain and holds the day’s warmth into the evening. We planted it in 1994, a row at a time, and have not added a row since.

II · The descent

Nine metres of patience.

A late-September afternoon, read straight down: from the leaf in the sun to the bottle in the dark.

A core sample, from the leaf to the cellar.

  1. 0 m Leaf Temperature 24 °C

    A vine leaf with the sun behind it, every vein lit.

    At the surface the leaf is working: light in, sugar down to the fruit.

  2. 0.4 m Root Temperature 17 °C

    A dark vine root running down a face of pale, cracked chalky soil.

    Forty centimetres down the topsoil gives out, and the roots go into the chalk.

  3. 3 m Chalk Temperature 13 °C

    A face of white chalk crossed by a dark band of flint.

    At three metres the chalk is cool and damp, and banded with flint.

  4. 9 m Cellar Temperature 11 °C

    Bottles stacked on their sides, punts outwards, ageing on their lees.

    Nine metres down, in the flint cellar, the wine waits on its lees.

III · The year in the vines

Twelve months, five that decide it.

The cellar book keeps the whole year. These are the days we would show you if you could only come five times.

  1. J
  2. F
  3. M
  4. A
  5. M
  6. J
  7. J
  8. A
  9. S
  10. O
  11. N
  12. D
  1. A cut-back vine cane furred with hoar frost, the bare rows pale behind it.

    January

    Pruning, under frost

    Every vine cut back to one cane and a spur. Four of us, six weeks, the whole hill.

  2. A vine bud splitting open in woolly pink and green.

    April

    Bud-break

    The buds split open in wool. One clear night below zero now can take a third of the crop.

  3. A bunch of pinot noir halfway through turning, green and black berries side by side.

    August

    Véraison

    The pinot noir turns from green to black, berry by berry, over about three weeks.

  4. Two hands cutting a bunch of black grapes from the vine with secateurs.

    September – October

    Harvest, by hand

    Picked into small crates and pressed whole-bunch within the hour, from the last week of September into October.

  5. Bare vines on either side of a grass row, disappearing into winter mist.

    December

    The vines at rest

    Leaves down, sap down, mist in the rows. The work moves below ground, into the cellar.

The vaulted cellar: barrels stacked two high along a stone floor, lamps on the rough ceiling.

IV · The cellar

Where nothing hurries.

The cellar was cut into the chalk in 1871 and lined with knapped flint. It holds 11 °C and a damp, still air in every season without a single machine.

Every wine is made in the traditional method: a second fermentation in its own bottle, then years on the spent yeast (the lees) before it is riddled, disgorged and given its small measure of dosage.

Months on the lees

The least any sparkling wine is given
36
The Blanc de Blancs 2019
60
The late-disgorged 2014
108

Sur lattes, then the racks

Until its time, each bottle lies stacked on thin wooden laths, punt outwards. Six weeks before disgorging it moves to the riddling racks, turned an eighth by hand each morning until the lees settle in the neck.

  1. Week 1
  2. Week 2
  3. Week 3
  4. Week 4
  5. Week 5
  6. Week 6
Sur pointe: the lees rest in the neck, ready to disgorge.

V · The wines

Eight wines, one cellar book.

Prices are per bottle at the cellar door. Dosage is the sugar added at disgorging, in grams per litre.

  1. Blanc de Blancs 2019 Current release

    Grapes Chardonnay

    On lees 60months

    Dosage 4g/L

    Bottle £58

    From the chalkiest rows near the crest. Lemon peel, warm bread, a long line of chalk at the finish.

    Disgorged March 2025. Drinking now; it will hold for ten years.

    Oysters, or simply the first glass of the evening.

  2. Classic Cuvée NV · base 2021

    Grapes Pinot noir, chardonnay, pinot meunier

    On lees 36months

    Dosage 7g/L

    Bottle £36

    The house wine of the estate: red apple, brioche, a soft mousse. One part in five is reserve wine from older years.

    Anything fried, anything salted.

  3. Blanc de Noirs 2018

    Grapes Pinot noir, pinot meunier

    On lees 54months

    Dosage 5g/L

    Bottle £52

    White wine from black grapes, pressed gently so the juice runs pale. Red berries, almond, real weight.

    Roast chicken; hard cheese.

  4. Rosé NV · base 2021

    Grapes Pinot noir, chardonnay

    On lees 30months

    Dosage 6g/L

    Bottle £42

    Coloured with eight per cent still pinot noir from the lower slope. Wild strawberry, orange peel, dry.

    Salmon, cured or smoked.

  5. Brut Nature 2017

    Grapes Chardonnay, pinot noir

    On lees 72months

    Dosage 0g/L

    Bottle £64

    No dosage at all, and only made in a ripe year; 2017 was one. Saline, taut, very long.

    Raw shellfish; nothing sweet nearby.

  6. Pinot Meunier Extra Brut 2020

    Grapes Pinot meunier

    On lees 36months

    Dosage 3g/L

    Bottle £46

    One parcel of meunier on the clay at the foot of the hill. Plum skin, spice; a wine to drink young.

    Charcuterie; mushrooms on toast.

  7. Late-disgorged 2014

    Grapes Chardonnay, pinot noir

    On lees 108months

    Dosage 2g/L

    Bottle £120

    Nine years on the lees in the flint cellar. Toasted hazelnut, honey, a fine and quiet mousse. 1,100 bottles.

    Turbot in butter, or a long evening.

  8. Still Chardonnay 2023

    Grapes Chardonnay

    On lees 9months

    Dosage none

    Bottle £34

    Our one still wine, from the youngest vines: nine months on fine lees in old oak. Pear, flint, a little cream.

    Dosage does not apply to a still wine.

    Spring vegetables; white fish.

VI · Visit the cellar door

Saturdays, by appointment.

Two tastings each Saturday, at eleven and at three, for no more than eight guests. £35 a guest, returned against any six bottles.

  • Children are welcome; we pour them pressed apple.
  • The walk is steep and the cellar steps are uneven.
  • We collect from the station for the 10:20 and the 14:20 trains.

  1. Up the slope

    30 min

    A walk up one row to the crest, in the shoes you came in. We stop where the chalk shows through.

  2. Down to the cellar

    20 min

    Thirty-one steps into the flint cellar, past the laths and the riddling racks.

  3. Six wines at the table

    40 min

    Poured at the cellar table, from the youngest to the late-disgorged, with bread and the estate’s own butter.

VII · Write to the cellar

Ask for a tasting date

I’d like to taste on with guests, and I’m most curious about . You can reach me at .

  • Saturdays 11:00 & 15:00
  • 90 minutes
  • Six wines, poured in the flint cellar