Flying the flag for English sparkling
Like most English people, I’m not particularly patriotic. I – wrongly – still associate the flag of St George with tattoo-sporting, racist nutters. However, there’s one English thing I get very excited about and would certainly fly the flag for: our sparkling wine.
Time was when you’d smile politely when someone offered you a glass, promising it would “one day rival champagne”. But change has come.
The area under vines in England has more than doubled in less than a decade, and most of that has been in the pursuit of what we do best. And it doesn’t stop there; huge new investment is going into the English industry, as the wine world clocks the quality of what’s being produced.
The grapes will be the same varieties that thrive in the Champagne region
A couple of the great Champagne houses – Taittinger and Pommery – have already invested in land in Kent, to grow grapes for their own planned English cuvées. Those grapes will be the same varieties that thrive in the Champagne region – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – because, thanks to some global warming, South East England enjoys pretty much the same climate that region had three decades ago.
Just as exciting is the enormous (by our standards) Rathfinny Estate, which is managing the rare feat of creating a buzz around a product, without having yet produced it. To be fair, growing, making, then maturing sparkling wine takes years – and the vines were only planted in 2010. Rathfinny apparently expects to produce more than a million bottles of English sparkling by 2020.
There’s no compromise, no talk of ‘second best’
I am a champagne lover, but I am also an evangelist for English sparkling. There’s no compromise, no talk of ‘second best’. I genuinely think our finest examples give their traditional champagne rivals sleepless nights.
Nyetimber is the ‘daddy of English sparkling’, having been established in Sussex in 1988. Its Nyetimber Classic Cuvée NV (£32.99 at Waitrose, and the same at Majestic, if you buy six) has won rave reviews and was our Christmas Day replacement for Champagne. Its estate-grown (meaning they only use their own grapes, rather than buy any in), has delicate citrus and toasty aromas, with crunchy green apple and brioche on the mouth, all perfectly balanced with that all-important cut-through acidity. It’s superb as an aperitif, or served with an opulent shellfish supper.
On a smaller scale, Henners was established ten years ago, by a former Formula 1 engineer, with the aim of ‘producing the finest English sparkling wine’. Whilst that’s quite a claim, it’s certainly an excellent product. I was really impressed with the delicate citrus and shortbread flavours on the nose, the fine mousse, the quality of the fruit and the elegant finish. If Henners Brut 2011 Vintage (£29.99 at Virgin Wines and independents) were a racing car, it would be highly polished, and raring to roar.
Finally, it’s to Hampshire, where the charismatic former property entrepreneur, Simon Bladen, has turned abandoned hop fields into vineyards. He tends to the vines himself and shares facilities – and winemaker, Irishman Dermot Sugrue – with the nearby Wiston Estate. Jenkyn Place Brut Cuvée 2010 (some Waitrose stores, £24.99, and independents) is fresh on nose, with those lovely citrus aromas and some nice sweet pastry notes in there too, and fine, if a little more restful, on the palette.
There are many other names battling it out, in genteel fashion, to produce the best English sparkler – and the quality just gets better, meaning those bubbles should leave you bursting with pride.