Gay-owned Digby Fine English, a West Sussex-based winemaker, has won at Wines of Great Britain’s (WineGB) awards.
The Digby Fine English team received some of the most prized honours at the 2023 ceremony.
In total, Digby Fine English’s 2013 Vintage Reserve Brut was awarded an impressive 4 trophies.
Titles included ‘Best Vintage Classic Cuvée’ for the second year, ‘Top Sparkling’ and the South East regional trophy.
This wine was also crowned with the highest honour of ‘Supreme Champion’.
The flagship wine is a blend of 65% Chardonnay, 25% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier.
CEO and Head Blender Trevor Clough remarked: “To be in a room surrounded by the best of the best of English winemaking is an honour in itself, but to be named Supreme Champion of that room is just mind-blowing.”
Clough noted the win for their 10-year-old flagship wine was “a ringing endorsement of our enduring commitment to long ageing.”
“To be named Supreme Champion of that room is just mind-blowing.”
Additionally, he noted that it was a “fabulous way of celebrating a decade” of Digby Fine English wines.
Judges praised the wine for “a lifted palate that combines the freshness of a cooler vintage with lees ageing and time under cork.” Additionally, Susie Barrie MW and Oz Clarke OBE chaired the judging panel.
Speaking to Attitude last year, Clough and his husband and Digby co-founder Jason Humphries explained that “only the authentic process delivers authentic results.”
Describing winemaking as a mix of “art and science,” Clough noted “England’s South Downs are chalky, very much like the Champagne region of France. So there is symmetry and similarity.”