Domaine Evremond – Champagne Taittinger Comes to Kent
- 16 hours ago
- 4 min read
Edition II, the second release of Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée, the joint venture between longtime friends Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger of the eponymous Champagne family and Patrick McGrath, Taittinger's UK importer
When the then-mayor Jean Taittinger twinned the city of Reims with Canterbury in the 1950s, it presumably never crossed his mind that 60 years or so later his family would be embarking on an English sparkling wine venture in the Kent countryside nearby.
Enter Jean’s son Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, his longtime friend and Taittinger Champagne importer, Patrick McGrath MW, and their shared vision to make a top quality, traditional-method English sparkling wine. Traditional method, meaning made in the same way as Champagne, but not an ersatz Champagne. The idea was always to make a wine that expressed the singularity of the place chosen.
That place was the village of Chilham in Kent, where the long cherished dream started to become a reality in 2015 when they bought Stone Stile Farm, a few miles from Canterbury. The farm had chalky, flint-rich soils, south-facing slopes and an ocean-influenced climate – ideal terroir. But it had no vines. The Gaskain family, who had owned it, are fruit farmers and one of the UK’s largest apple growers.
The new Franco-British owners planted the vineyards from scratch, renaming the farm-turned-wine-estate Domaine Evremond after Charles de Saint-Évremond, a French soldier, writer, literary critic and epicurean who introduced the fashion for drinking Champagne to the UK at the court of Charles II after he was exiled to England in 1661. He’s the only Frenchman to be buried in Poets’ Corner at Westminster Abbey. There's a thing.
What sets Domaine Evremond apart from the very limited number of other Champagne producers’ investment and involvement in English vineyards is that they didn’t buy in any grapes or wine while waiting for their own vines – planted in 2017 – to mature.
Instead, they waited until the 2020 vintage to make a base wine before blending it with 20 per cent reserve wines from 2019. They then aged it for three years on the lees, disgorged it in April 2025 and released it as Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée Edition I later in the year, a decade after it had all begun.
I tasted Edition I last autumn and, favourably impressed, I featured it in my Festive Wine Guide 2025 ('elegance, classic styling, notably silky mousse, salty, chalky minerality and subtle flavours of apple pie and sweet lemon'). Edition II has now been released and I’ve tasted it twice and, yes, been favourably impressed both times.
One of the intriguing things about Edition II is that it seems a shade fuller, creamier and riper than Edition I did last November, with just-ripe apricot glazing the citrus fruit core (scroll down for the full tasting note). Intriguing because the base wine, which again accounts for 80 percent of the blend, is 2021, a markedly colder, wetter growing season than 2020. If anything, you would expect it to be leaner.
What would make it seem fuller, creamier, riper? The vines were a year older in 2021, which might not seem much, but, when we’re talking about young vines, it could be significant. Similarly, the Taittinger team (Christelle Rinville in the vineyard and Alexandre Ponnavoy in the cellar) had had another year’s experience with the Chilham terroir.
There is also more Pinot Noir in Edition II, 65% as against 55%, and less Chardonnay, 25% as against 35%, with Pinot Meunier making up the final 10% in both cases. The greater proportion of Pinot Noir could give a fuller, riper expression.
Barely six weeks after tasting Edition II, I had the opportunity to taste Edition I again and was surprised – and delighted – at how it has evolved, relaxed and filled out. It still has the saline inflection, the chalky minerality, the lemon fruit and notably silky mousse, but now it comes straight in with some richer nutty notes (roast almond and buttery almond patisserie) and there is honey-baked apple and notable creamy richness – Chardonnay revealing itself more.
Next up, Edition III. And the gradual inclusion of grapes from vineyards planted in 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2024, which bring total plantings to 61 hectares, or 150.7 acres, since we’re in England.
Check the neck label if you are in any doubt as to which Edition you have
TASTING
Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée Edition II
65% Pinot Noir, 35% Chardonnay, 10% Pinot Meunier, all planted in 2017. Alcoholic and full malolactic fermentation in stainless steel. Base wine 2021, with reserve wines (20%) from 2020 and 2019; 3 years on lees; disgorged June 2025; dosage 7g/l; abv 12% .
Very pale. On the nose: fresh hay, spring flowers, salty oyster brine and a whiff of apricot around a lemon and mineral core. The palate adds a pinch of spicy cardamom and just-ripe apricot glazes the orange-zest and lemon. The overall effect is fine-boned, pure and precise with a chalk-smooth, delicately rich texture, glacial acidity and a mouthwatering saline, apricot-sheened finish. Drink 2026–2031. 94
Edition II: £55, or £297 for 6, Domaine Evremond
Edition I: £55, or £297 for 6, Domaine Evremond, £57, or £52 in any 6-bottle mix, Majestic, £45–£60, many independents (find stockists on wine-searcher)
Photographs by Joanna Simon
I played Block Blast while my induction cooktop cooled down after making lunch. By the time I checked again, the surface was safe to wipe.