By Francis Gimblett
Time to Ditch Champagne
Photo Credit: Hambledon Vineyard
sparkling wine crafted exclusively
from the Champagne varietals:
Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and
Pinot Meunier. Whether it was by
design or by a happy accident
will likely remain conjecture but
the then owners, Stuart and
Sandy Moss, had hit upon the
winning combination: plant
these ‘noble’ varieties (not
crossings or hybrids bred for
tolerance to adverse conditions)
on a warm, well-drained site and
they’ll do well. For sparkling
wine, that is a style that requires
modest levels of grape ripeness.
ome and taste this,’ said
my wine course tutor.
‘It’s pretty rare.’
‘C
I was at the 1990 English Wine
Festival and the air in the
marquee was warm with the
aromas of the latest vintages. I
came out from behind the stall
I’d been assisting on and
followed my tutor along a row of
producers proffering samples of
Muller Thurgau, Reichensteiner,
Madeleine Angevine,
Schonburger and Ortega, the
favoured grapes of English
winemakers back then. Grown
for their suitability to marginal
climates, rather than for their
olfactory properties, these
grapes were, and still are,
second tier in world terms.
‘Gently floral with hints of
hedgerow,’ had been the theme
of my tasting notes that
morning.
We arrived at a stall festooned
with bunting that sold the
concept of England rather than
extolled the virtues of the wine;
very much the marketing stance
back then … You should drink
English … well, because it’s
not foreign. Many producers’
livelihoods depended on one-off
purchases from visitors at the
end of a winery tour; the wine
bought in lieu of a ticket price,
rather than for the experience in
the bottle.
The stallholder poured me a
sample and watched expectantly
as I nosed the glass. My tutor
looked on. The word ‘attack’ is
occasionally employed within
tasting terms and in most cases
it over-dramatises. However here
the verb seemed too weak. After
16
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inhalation, the first sensation
was one of my nostril hairs
wilting before the aromas,
whose dark purpose soon
became apparent as a lightning
bolt hit me between the
temples. I recoiled, exhaling with
effort, a reaction that didn’t
seem to perturb the stallholder. I
considered how best to describe
this ‘attack’, or rather what
tasted like the aftermath of a
battle some days past. I forced a
smile as I penned a note.
Thankfully my scrawl allowed me
to say ‘very nice,’ rather than
‘week-old dead rodent,
marinated in vinegar’.
‘So what did you think?’ said my
tutor with a grin as we walked
away. ‘Not bad to get
Brettanomyces (a spoiler yeast
giving a mousy smell), volatile
acidity (vinegar taint caused by
acetic acid) and oxidation
(excessive exposure to the air
giving rancid characters) in one
wine. A trifecta!’ And so a theme
developed that afternoon as my
tutor was able to have me
experience all of the wine fault
theory we’d covered on his
course. Such was the state of
much of the winemaking then.
That afternoon was a turning
point for me. It was the day I
decided that I didn’t, after all,
want to work in English wine.
Having come from an agency
importing Bollinger, I had
probably become a snob.
Instead, I started a wine tasting
company. Had that afternoon
been a few years later, my future
might have turned out
differently.
In the mid nineties Nyetimber
Estate released the first English
With hindsight, it’s hard to
understand why the formula
hadn’t been cracked before.
After all, average temperatures
in some parts of southern
England are the same as those
in the Champagne region and
the downland chalk is the same
seam (though many of our finest
new plantings are on equally
suitable greensand). Maybe we
just lacked confidence? Some
cite global warming as the
reason for the success of
English sparkling wine but a
glance at localised temperatures
doesn’t support this theory.
Some of our best vintages in the
last ten years have been cooler
than average. Whatever the
reason, the good news is that
English sparkling wine has
become more than a novelty,
regularly winning highly regarded
awards.
Having made comparisons
between Champagne and
English sparkling wine at Taste of
Whatever the
reason, the good
news is that English
sparkling wine has
become more than a
novelty, regularly
winning highly
regarded awards.
the Vine tastings for some years,
we are now regularly asked to
host events comprising
exclusively English sparkling
wine. And, such is the stream of
new wines to market, that I have
the pleasure of being able to
add a new producer into the
selection each time.
Among our favourites are,
Bolney Estate, Breaky Bottom,
Gusbourne, Henners,
Hambledon, Hattingley Valley, an
expanded Nyetimber, Ridgeview
and Tinwood. This is a nonexhaustive list, biased by
proximity to our offices, but you
can rest assured that if you do
buy English sparkling wine, you
are likely to find, pound-forpound, the equivalent quality to
Champagne.
I made a comparison last week
between Bond’s beloved Vintage
Bollinger and Sugrue Pierre, a
niche bottling from Dermot
Sugrue at Wiston Estate. To me,
007’s choice now seems as
incongruous as if Q had given
him a Citroen to drive instead of
an Aston Martin.
TASTE OF THE VINE
www.tasteofthevine.co.uk
Francis is MD of Taste of the Vine, providing interactive wine, beer and whisky
tasting events for the corporate market. Now in its sixteenth year, the company
has staged over 3000 events in 49 countries.
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