CORKK

 One benefit of living in the South East of England is that we are in the major wine producing area in the UK.  This is not to claim advantage over other areas in being able to buy English wine since this is available to order online and is widely distributed but viticulture now feels a reassuringly local enterprise, not least in Kent, the Garden of England.  Many producers are capitalising on our growing interest in wine tourism and a couple of summers ago when 'staycation' was the thing we were very happy to book tours and tastings with award-winning producers such as Simpsons Wine Estate and Gusbourne.  I am happy to report then that the English wine experience has now got another 'attraction' with the opening of the CORKK wine store in Canterbury.  In fact, to describe it as little more than a shop is to do it a disservice.  Of course, you can (and should) buy wine here but it goes much further by offering a good range of wines to sample and you would be missing out if you didn't sit down at a table and accompany your wine tastings with a platter or two of locally-sourced meats and cheeses.  Some of my family had visited over Christmas and returned very impressed so I was thrilled to be given £50 credit to spend there as a present for my January birthday.  I didn't take long to investigate and this is my review.

CORKK is at 29/30 Burgate, about 100m from the Christ Church gate, the main entrance to the Canterbury Cathedral precincts. It is open every day except Monday (see website for details). It is owned by Jonathan Piggins whose mission is to find the best English wines and make them available to a wide audience, in this case by bringing the vineyard to the high street.  Two walls of the store have floor to ceiling shelves attractively displaying a vast range of English wine with a smaller selection of carefully chosen wines from elsewhere.  In the middle of the room are two enomatic machines back to back containing 16 bottles of wine essentially 'on draught'.  By paying a nominal £2 for a card which you load with the amount of money you choose you are then able to insert it into a machine to dispense a measure of wine.  There are 3 measure sizes to choose from, the price of which is clearly displayed and deducted from the credit on your card.  This proved to be an excellent way to compare a couple of Pinot Noirs from different English producers and to sample a range of Bacchus-based wines, the so-called English alternative to Sauvignon Blanc. What's good is once you've found a wine to your taste you can go back and have another larger measure.  As I understand it, the bottles in the enomatic machine change fairly regularly therefore you could return a few weeks later to explore a completely new selection.  While the machines predominantly contain English wines there are a few bottles from elsewhere.  In this way I was able to try out a Stellenbosch Cabernet Sauvignon from South Africa (which was not to my taste) and a Sangiovese-based wine from Tuscany (which definitely was!).  CORKK is proud of its partnership with Clive Barlow, Master of Wine, who is closely involved in the selecting wines on offer.  But I have to say the expertise of the two ladies working in the store when we visited was second to none.  They readily gave summaries of the producers and production methods of the various wines and highlighted differences between the various bottles we were considering.  When I questioned whether the Italian wine was a Chianti Classico the explanation was accurate in identifying the grape varieties and the location of the winery but nicely side-stepped the fact that the producer is something of a maverick in his methods meaning that he is at odds with the local Consorzio of Chianti Classico and therefore has to declassify his wines to IGP status (Indicazione Geografica Protetta (Protected Geographical Indication). As new people arrived in store I noted how excellent they were in building rapport with customers by quickly gauging their knowledge and level of interest.

Having sampled the wines and enjoyed the meats and cheeses it was time to select my takeaway purchases.  After detailed consideration on this occasion these were my choices (one white, one red):

Chapel Down Kit's Coty Bacchus 2020

This is no ordinary English Bacchus but a top-notch award-winning bottle from now of the bigger Kent producers. It is made from grapes grown in ideal conditions on the chalky soil on the Kent Downs north of Maidstone.  Aging for 9 months in French oak barrels increases its richness and complexity compared with 'lesser' Bacchus-based wines.  I am expecting the "ripe green apple and elderflower aromas" but particularly look forward to "the creamy palate and long, fresh finish"

Montedesassi, Il Borghetto 2019

This is the Italian red mentioned above.  Made almost exclusively from Sangiovese with 5% Canaiolo - a not untypical blend for Chianti, it is nevertheless in a bottle more typical of Burgundy.  The Azienda Agricola Il Borghetto definitely wants to do things differently even if it means falling out with the authorities.  But having sampled this wine from the enomatic machine I was more than happy to buy a bottle.  According to the label the 2019 vintage only produced 3600 bottles but after aging 18 months in barrel it really is as attractive as you might hope.