The Times, Britain’s newspaper of record, covered the news that two Burgundian winemakers, Pierre Duroché from Gevrey-Chambertin and Alex Moreau from Chassagne-Montrachet, were coming to make wine in the Crouch Valley, with the headline: ‘Santé, babes! French vintners raise a toast to Essex wines’. For non-British readers, it might need explaining that the juxtaposition of Burgundy with England’s most maligned county, notorious for orange suntans and retired gangsters, is inherently funny. But Essex is also the home of Romantic painter John Constable, Maldon...
The Burgundian touch in England's Crouch Valley
Monday 16 March 2026
• 2 min read
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The sunny Crouch Valley in Essex lures Burgundians across the Channel to make wine in England.
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