Nannette’s 2025: Rosé, rewilding and responsibility
THE WINE
A changing climate made English wine possible. As summers become warmer and longer, the grapes that are possible to grow and how well they do so, also continue to evolve.
From the outset English sparkling wines and the associated ‘Champagne’ grape varieties that make them have gone on to win prestigious, international awards – developing a recognisable style of their own, outside of comparison. In turn, when it comes to English still wines, these are no longer framed as “dupes” of Burgundy or Provence – being taken seriously in their own right.
This year’s release of Balfour Winery’s pale, dry rosé, Nannette’s 2025 is a prime example. Pale and precise, it is simply ‘English’, picking up international gold medals in previous vintages even when judged blind against some of the rest of the world’s most established rosés.
The 2025 vintage tastes like Kentish wild strawberry and redcurrant, which is complete with a citrus acidity. Nannette’s is a pale, dry rosé that knows exactly where it comes from.
THE LAND BEHIND IT
The sense of place in Nannette’s comes partly from what surrounds the vines and partly from choices made long before harvest. Balfour’s vineyards sit alongside ancient woodland, orchards and 15 acres of wildflower meadow.
And all the while this creates a beautiful backdrop, it also serves as important infrastructure. Those meadows support populations of bees, moths and butterflies, which in turn pollinate the apple orchards and the vines. Grape waste is composted back into the soil and the sparkling wine bottles are made from recycled glass. It’s these practices, amongst many more, that mean Balfour holds Gold status from Sustainable Wines of Great Britain.
The partnership with Kent Wildlife Trust takes this commitment even further. For every bottle of Nannette’s sold, Balfour donates to fund rewilding projects across the county: wetlands, grasslands, woodland corridors. One of the Kent Wildlife Trust’s most striking projects is the reintroduction of European bison into local woodland. These animals reshape landscapes through their movement, opening dense areas, encouraging plant diversity, sequestering carbon from the atmosphere and creating conditions for other species to follow.
DRINKING ROSÉ AS ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
Every bottle of Nannette’s is, in a small but significant way, a vote for better wine production. Consumer choices do shape what producers invest in. When a wine that funds rewilding sells out every year, that tells the industry something: people care.
Quality and conscience aren’t in competition, and a glass of pale, dry English rosé can be, without any irony at all, a wholly good thing to buy.
Quality and conscience aren’t in competition. It makes a glass of pale, dry English rosé can be, without any irony at all, a wholly good thing to buy.
ROMANCE AND RESPONSIBILITY
There is, however, a subtle contradiction at the heart of English wine right now; its success is partly enabled by the same climatic shifts that are threatening other regions, other crops, other ways of farming.
At Balfour Winery, the answer has always been long-term stewardship: integrating biodiversity into the estate, reducing intervention where possible, and recognising that great wine and a healthy environment aren’t in competition. They’re the same project.
To drink it outside, in the fading light, somewhere in the English countryside, is to be part of something circular.
Nannette’s 2025 sits right at the heart of that. It’s a wine that captures a place and gestures towards its future. To drink it outside, in the fading light, somewhere in the English countryside, is to be part of something circular. That’s the romance and the responsibility of it.
HOW TO DRINK IT
There is no overthinking required here. Nannette’s is a wine for being outside. It is made for gardens, for that golden hour at the beach, and for barbecues that stretch a little longer than intended.
There’s a principle in food and wine pairing — what grows together, goes together — that rarely fails. It usually refers to ingredients, and it does here too, but it also applies in a way that you might not have considered. Drinking English wine on English soil, ideally within sight of the same kind of hedgerows, orchards, and slow-changing skies that produced it, has a particular intimacy.
It is made for gardens, for that golden hour at the beach, and for barbecues
On the table: summer salads, grilled seafood, soft cheeses.
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