What is dosage?

Dosage represents the final opportunity for a winemaker to influence the flavours and style of a traditional method wine, before corking. Typically this dosage addition (or liqueur d’expedition in French) includes a small quantity of sugar, used to highlight and enhance the fruit flavours and to round out the acidity often found in cooler climate wines. Subtle differences in the quantity of sugar used (the ‘rate of dosage’ ) can have a major impact on the perception of fruit character and nuance of those flavour notes.

To learn more about dosage, we invite you to step into the shoes of a winemaker and discover first-hand how the addition of sugar affects the style and structure of our sparkling wines on this fun and informative tour.

Book
Wine Tasting at Rathfinny Wine Estate Native Visit

What's Included

Starting in the Vineyard, your guide will introduce you to our stunning single-site Estate, giving you an insight into the history of Rathfinny and the important role our landscape and climate plays in the production of Sussex Sparkling wine. After a tour of our Winery and Bottling buildings, you will be given the opportunity to conduct your own dosage trial, adding different levels of sugar to a base wine to see how this affects its final style. The experience will conclude with a guided tasting of four of our Sussex wines.

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Rathfinny Tour Group Walking into the Vineyard

Details

  • Date: Monday 21st April 2025 (Bank Holiday)
  • Times: 10:30 a.m. & 2:30 p.m.
  • Duration: 2 hour 30 minutes
  • Price: £40 per person
  • Location: Cellar Door, Rathfinny Wine Estate, BN26 5TU
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Monday 21st April

Book the Spring Dosage Tasting Experience

Mark holding a plain Rathfinny Reserved bottle up to the light

Learn More about Dosage

As a grower-producer, we want our sense of place to shine through. Low-dosage vintage wines are terroir-driven, speaking to the place and time they were made to showcase the purity of the fruit. In this article we explain the terminology of dosage in relation to the different styles of sparkling wines, from Brut to Demi-Sec.

Learn More

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