Wine of the Month · October 2026
Lady Elizabeth Rosé 2018
Coolhurst Vineyards · West Sussex
Decanter Gold, 95 points: a late-disgorged Sussex sparkling rosé, 100% Pinot Noir with 72 months on the lees.
Tasting notes
Pale salmon. Fresh strawberry, raspberry, cherry and red apple, with brioche and pastry from six years on the lees and a savoury, saline finish. Weighty and structured, with a fine, supple mousse.
Food pairing
Smoked salmon, seared scallops or crab; roast duck or game birds; a soft-rind cheese. Serve cool, not ice-cold, in a white-wine glass.
from £45.00
Buy from CoolhurstTakes you to www.coolhurstvineyards.com. We don’t sell wine ourselves.
The story
Coolhurst sits in the High Weald near Horsham, on land the Scrase Dickins family has farmed for seven generations. Cousins Charlie and Will planted the vineyard with one idea in mind: make very little wine and take a long time doing it. Lady Elizabeth was their first label. It is named after the daughter of the Marquess of Northampton, who first established the estate.
The wine is a single-vintage English sparkling rosé made from 100% Pinot Noir in the traditional method. Coolhurst's house rule is a minimum of 60 months on the lees. The 2018 went well past that.
How it is made
The 2018 spent 72 months on its lees, then a further year resting on cork, before it was late disgorged. That is six years of slow contact with spent yeast, far longer than most English sparkling wine and longer than many Champagnes. The extra time turns the obvious red-fruit brightness of young Pinot Noir rosé into something layered, with brioche and pastry notes and a finer, softer mousse.
Coolhurst still keeps to single vintages. In a vintage that does not deliver, there is no blending back to smooth it over. What the vineyard yields is what goes into the bottle, and the numbers stay small.
Why we picked it
In 2026 the Decanter World Wine Awards gave Lady Elizabeth 2018 a Gold medal and 95 points. The judges described “an attractive composure of fresh strawberries, raspberries, cherries and red apples allied with sumptuous brioche and savoury saline charm”, calling it “weighty and structured with supple mousse.” The same wine had already won Silver at the WineGB Awards 2024.
Most of the medals at that level go to big houses. This one went to a family estate that does almost everything by hand. At £45 it costs a fraction of what a prestige cuvée of similar age would. It is the bottle to open this autumn when you want English sparkling wine to show what time can do.
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