5 September 2026
"Perhaps the best Chardonnay I have tasted"
In June we introduced Tidebrook here. In August we sent a letter about the producer to Norwegian wine writers, and since then five outlets have written about the wines from East Sussex. They write in Norwegian; the quotes below are translated.
From Platinum to 95 points
It started in June. Staddle Stone Chardonnay 2023 took Platinum and 97 points at the Decanter World Wine Awards, the first English still chardonnay to do so.
The wine isn't new to Norwegian reviewers. Merete Bø gave the 2022 vintage 90 points in Dagens Næringsliv last year. But August was busier: Vidar Pedersen at Godt Drikke gave the 2023 vintage 95 points on 22 August, and described the nose as "lovely and inviting, with citrus, apples and ripe fruit, together with small hints of flowers".
Perhaps the best Chardonnay I have tasted.
Order Staddle Stone Chardonnay at Vinmonopolet
But it isn't only the chardonnay
Two days later Pedersen wrote a portrait of the producer. There, Six Petals Rosé took 85 points and The Tipping Point Pinot Noir 90.
Reiseliv1 covered all four in September and called the rosé "a rosé in the international top class". Vinpuls, writing about English still wines taking on Burgundy, found that the chardonnay "combines English freshness with Burgundian richness". And Appetitt has had both the rosé and the chardonnay in its drinks column.
A whole episode on the producer
Kjell-Gabriel Hendrichs gave his entire 1 September episode to Tidebrook, eleven minutes on a producer he had just come across. The episode notes say the wines "have charmed him".
The producer
Tidebrook is run by Gary and Kathy Jordan, who are also behind Jordan Wine Estate in Stellenbosch. Their daughter Christy is the winemaker, and 2022 was the estate's very first vintage. We import them because they show what English still wine can be when experienced winemakers work in a cool climate.
All four are at Vinmonopolet now.