Jersey Island (UK) – La Mare Sainte Marie 2011

Last year I read an article on the online edition of Bibenda about the (only) wine producer on the island of Jersey. Searching on internet I realized that I couldn’t buy those wines online, as expedition out of the island is forbidden by law … what a shame!

But, as last summer I went to visit Brittany, I could finally arrange a trip to the island and look for those unreachable wines!

It took quite a long trip to find the winery but, once there, the first impression, the hospitality of the staff was simply delighting. I couldn’t do the tour of the domaine and its vines but I had a nice tasting and a full immersion in their shop. After almost an hour I went out with three bottles, representing a wide panorama of the production. Here it is the white one!

Domaine and vineyard

La Mare Wine Estate was established in 1972 by Robert Blayney and was purchased by the new owner in 1997 when Mr Blayney retired. The estate itself is a fascinating combination of history and tradition. Comprising of historic buildings and beautiful gardens; extensive vineyards and orchards; function rooms, a winery, distillery and estate kitchens which produce a wonderful array of genuine jersey produce.

The first building of the actual estate was built in 1600 and two centuries after, in 1797, is dated the construction of the central farmhouse. The Second World War, due to the German occupation of the island, meant abandon and poverty for the property.  Only in 1968 the restoration of the estate started, with the slow transformation in the actual touristic attraction, as well as the keeper of the jersey’s traditional gastronomy.

Of the 25 acres of the domaine only 6 are dedicated nowadays to the vines, resulting in a limited production.

The wine

A medium dry white wine made from a blend of Orion and Seyval Blanc grapes. The wine was carefully fermented using a Burgundian yeast strain, in stainless steel tanks under cool conditions. This combination has created a wine that displays ripe citrus and herbaceous aromas, delicate pome fruit flavours and well structured acidity. Over all it displays the tipicity of the site similar in character as the fresh North West winds that prevail.

Tasting Note

Date	18 December 2014
Wine name	SAINTE MARIE	Vintage	2011
Nation	United Kingdom	Region	Jersey Island
AOC-DOC	//	Grape Varieties	Orion, Seyval Blanc
Serving temperature	10-12° C	Alcohol	11,5
Price (in euro)	12	SO2 (in mg/l)	//

Visual Examination		Taste analysis
Limpidity	Brilliant	Body	Weak
Color	Straw yellow	Balance	Balanced
Consistency	Scarcely consistent	Soft sensations	Scarcely Warm – Scarcely Soft
Effervescence	//	Hard sensations	Quite Fresh
		Flavors intensity	Scarcely Intense
Olfactory analysis		Flavors	Citrus fruits, hints of balsamic
Aroma intensity	Quite Intense
Complexity	Scarcely Complex	Finish/Persistence	Scarcely Persistent
Quality	Quite Fine	Overall evaluations
Aromas	Herbal, Citrus fruits	Development	Ready
		Harmony	Harmonious

Food pairing

The typical locally caught scallops or chancre crab.

I was not expecting much from this wine. It remains a niche product that has as its main commercial vehicle the particularity to come from an island suspended between France and the UK, with the two souls who try to coexist. In addition, the very fact of having imported clones specifically says a lot about the absence of local winemaking traditions.
The wine has no great pretensions, in my opinion, and few will get. A flat product, which does not leave his mark neither in the mouth nor in the memory but that puts his name in the long list of wines "without infamy and without praise. "
Advise it? I would not say. Unless of being on the island of Jersey in front of a plate of fish or shellfish for a 100% local meal.

Official website: www.lamarewineestate.com