TASTING NOTES
Sparkling Renaissance
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Romans, accounts of celebrated English crus, like that of Painshill Park in Surrey, renowned in the 18th century for its exquisite gardens but also for its wine, said to have “sparkled and creamed in the glass”. A pipe dream? So it seemed to many, until the 2010 Decanter World Wine Awards, when a sparkling bottle-aged chardonnay of beguiling depth and éclat from Sussex, England – the 2006 Blanc de Blancs from Ridgeview (ridgeview.co.uk) – was named the best sparkling wine in the world, trouncing five champagnes. For Decanter’s tastings director, Christelle Guibert, it was a landmark upset. “This unequivocally rubberstamps England’s membership
MAP: THERESA GRIEBEN
T
oday, English wine’s very existence is a testament to the plucky British character. For decades following the launch of the first commercial vineyards after World War II, nary a nectar was produced in the British Isles that could have been mistaken for fine wine. There were promising soils, but the cool climate posed a daunting obstacle to viticulture. Even cold-hardy hybrid grapes rarely ripened beyond six to eight per cent natural alcohol. Most vintners’ attempts at winemaking relied on several kilos of beet sugar. Yet they laboured on, perhaps fuelled by tantalising tales of Britain’s winemaking past – vast vineyards planted by the
AFTER CENTURIES OF SUB-PAR VINTAGES, WINEMAKERS ACROSS SOUTHERN ENGLAND ARE TURNING OUT SOME OF THE WORLD’S TOP TIPPLES. JEFFREY T IVERSON REPORTS ON THE REMARKABLE REBIRTH
to that exclusive club of truly world-class, sparkling wine producers,” she declared. Today, a perfect melange of global warming, globalisation and gusto is transforming English winemakers’ wildest hopes into reality. In the next few years, the volume of English sparkling wine reaching the market is expected to rise from 1.5 million to more than 5 million bottles. In fact, since the 2004 launch of Hampshire’s Meonhill Vineyard (hambledonvineyard. co.uk) by Frenchman Didier Pierson of Champagne Pierson Whitaker, Champagne houses are increasingly hopping the Channel for sparkling wine partnerships in southern England, from Taittinger last December
to Vranken-Pommery in May. Might oenophiles the world over soon be swapping their Bollinger for British bubbly? Even Stephen Skelton, a founding father of modern English viticulture, couldn’t have foreseen this renaissance. He recalls planting champagne grapes such as chardonnay at the Kent vineyards he established in 1977, which became Chapel Down (chapeldown.com), England’s largest estate. “It never got anywhere, it was hard as bullets.” So for Skelton, two decades later, to taste the sparkling 100% chardonnay from Nyetimber in West Sussex (nyetimber.com) – Britain’s first estate planted entirely with champagne >
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TASTING NOTES
“ In the next few years, the volume of English sparkling wine reaching the market is expected to rise from 1.5 million to more than 5 million bottles ”
Getting There Camel Valley
Cornwall Airport Newquay, 18miles/29km Sharpham Wine & Cheese
Exeter International Airport, 35miles/56km Hambledon Vineyard for Meohnilll Vineyard
Southampton Airport, 20miles/32km Nyetimber
Farnborough Airport, 36miles/ 58km Breaky Bottom Vineyards
London Biggin Hill Airport, 53miles/85km The Chapel Down Winery/ Gusborne Estate
London Biggin Hill Airport, 53miles/85km
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▲ GREEN AND GOLDEN Sharpham Vineyard in Devon produces award-winning wine from madeleine angevine grapes
sparkling wine, which saw chardonnay, pinot noir and meunier edge out cold-hardy müller-thurgau, seyval blanc, reichensteiner and bacchus to become England’s most widely grown grapes. Of course, as he writes in his UK Vineyards Guide, “it might just as well be called the ‘Climate Change’ effect”. From 1952 to 1988 summer temperatures almost never rose above 30 degrees, but between 1989 and 2006 – as global warming took hold – they did almost every year, pushing southern England’s climate to the tipping-point where growing champagne varieties became practicable. A few growers, particularly Gusbourne in Kent (gusbourne.com), have even proven that in the warmest years it’s possible to produce eminently quaffable English barrel-aged red Pinot Noir. Though growing French grapes, many acclaimed English winemakers credit their success not to imitating Moët and Krug, but to cultivating an identity all their own. “We don’t particularly want to be champagne carbon copies,” says Bob Lindo of Cornwall’s Camel Valley (camelvalley.com). “We want to be distinctive.” In 2014, Bob’s then 37-year-old son Sam Lindo became the first Briton to be shortlisted for the International Sparkling Winemaker of the Year, a recognition of Camel Valley’s sparkling style – bracing acidity, pound cake sweetness and fruity, floral aromatics – which is a conscious departure from heavily toasted, oxidised reserve champagne styles. And some of England’s best bubbles aren’t even made with champagne grapes. Breaky Bottom’s Sparkling Brut (breakybottom.co.uk), an East Sussex wine from 100% seyval blanc, was recently served at the Queen’s Jubilee celebrations. “It’s too early to start discarding grape varieties when we still don’t even know their full potential,” says Lindo. Sharpham Vineyard (sharpham. com) in south Devon makes an award-winning oak barrel-fermented still white wine from 100% madeleine angevine grapes. At the 2009 International Wine Challenge, Camel Valley’s single-vineyard Darnibole, a bone-dry still white of steely minerality made from the bacchus grape, a cool-climate hybrid, won best English wine – beating the country’s finest fizz. Such delicious upsets make Stephen Skelton wish he were a young man again. “I’d like to be able to see English wine in 40 years … I don’t think we’ve got anywhere near where we’re headed.” ■
JAN TRAYLEN; FACING PAGE: © CAMEL VALLEY WINES (2), CHARLIE CLIFT (2)
▲ ON THE RISE From the sparkling wine of Sam and Bob Lindo’s Camel Valley in Cornwall, top row, to Gusbourne’s reds in East Sussex, bottom row, English wines are gaining admirers
varietals – was to savour the advent of a new era. Redolent of citrus, stone fruit, nut and toast aromas, “I just couldn’t believe it,” says Skelton. “I was sure they’d bought some bloody champagne and put an English wine label on it.” In 1998, Nyetimber’s 1993 Classic Cuvée three-grape blend won the trophy for the world’s best bottle fermented sparkling wine outside Champagne. Suddenly, says Skelton, “everyone realised that maybe Nyetimber was pointing to the way forward”. Skelton dubbed it the “Nyetimber Effect” – this enthusiastic shift to producing bottle-aged
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