News

Westwell’s designer and illustrator Galia talks about the inspiration behind our labels. When we first took over Westwell back in 2017, the very special terroir was the recurring theme of all of our conversations. We marvelled at the site, and whilst there on one of our early visits, we took photographs of the vines and the soil. As soon as we got home, I sat down to sketch a detail from one of the soil photographs that we’d taken and immediately got lost inside the incredible detail - the rocks, leaves and sticks - and the earth itself - sand,...

We are thrilled that in a blind tasting conducted by Neil Walker, founder of The English Vine wine company, sensory perception expert Dr Heber Rodrigues of East Sussex’s Plumpton College and Dr Nicolas Depetris-Chauvin of The Geneva School of Business, Pelegrim came out on top. Blind tasting results: Westwell Pelegrim NV (338) / English Sparkling Wine Nyetimber Classic Cuvée (329) / English Sparkling Wine Hambledon Classic Cuvée (321) / English Sparkling Wine Lanson Black Label Brut NV (317) / French Champagne Laurent Perrier La Cuvée Brut NV (291) / French Champagne Ridgeview Bloomsbury NV (278) / English Sparkling Wine Vueve...

There are so many things I love about making sparkling wine. With the traditional bottle method, the slow process is definitely one element I find compelling, but I also love the myriad different ways that we use to make wines at Westwell. Hopefully, people have tried the Petulant Nature wine we make from Ortega - this is made in the style of a Pet Nat with a single fermentation but is bottled towards the end of that fermentation so that it completes in bottle - trapping carbon dioxide and creating a gentle fizz. It’s a really exciting way of making...

If you’ve ever wondered what becomes of all those grass clippings that go into your green waste garden bin at home - well - some of them end up at Westwell - please thank your lawns from us. Over time, older vines will have depleted the nutrients in the soil, so it’s important to replace these. We do this using the compost from our local green recycling centre in East Malling, which is about 15 miles from the vineyard. They take the council green waste, i.e. garden prunings and grass cuttings and turn it into lovely black, crumbly compost. It’s...