Blanc de Noirs 2020

A little over a decade ago, Ben and Sam Ellis returned from a visit to Napa Valley, inspired to make sparkling wine closer to home. In 2016, they planted 6.8 hectares of vines on the clay loam soils of East Sussex, within the South Downs National Park, built a house among them, and established Everflyht as a single-estate English sparkling wine producer. It is a family venture run by Ben, Sam and their three daughters, George, Ollie and Eva. Vineyard manager and winemaker Luke Spalding joined in 2019, bringing experience from Ridgeview, and has steadily moved the estate towards organic farming ever since. A further 3.5 hectares have been set aside for biodiversity, with over 400 trees, 800 metres of hedgerow and wildflower meadows planted around the estate. The name is drawn from the six Martlets of the Sussex crest, birds said never to land, always in flight, an apt symbol for a family who came to winemaking out of sheer curiosity and have never looked back.