Mon Dieu! The Queen could soon be serving Windsor fizz to the French
THe vines stretch down the south-facing slope towards the lake, 20,000 of them laid out in perfect rows. a tall, shiny wire fence ensures that the local deer herd hasn’t the slightest chance of chomping this crop of top-quality chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes.
It’s exactly the same blend of grapes you will find growing in similar French countryside around epernay and Reims, the region which gives its name to the world’s most famous sparkling wine, Champagne.
except I am 300 miles from Reims — in a very private corner of the Queen’s back garden. I have come to inspect the latest project in the Royal Family’s unexpectedly varied agricultural repertoire.
If everything goes according to plan — and, so far, it has — then it won’t be long before Windsor Great Park is producing a quality Champagne-style wine of sufficient calibre to be served at royal occasions and state banquets.
Just imagine the look on the face of a future French President as the Queen raises a toast to the entente cordiale with a glass of sparkling Windsor wine.
a few years ago, the very idea would have met with guffaws. But British wine is no longer a laughing matter as it trounces the grandest names in Champagne in more and more blind tastings by industry professionals.
It’s certainly been a frantic couple of weeks for this fledgling industry. a few days ago, the uk Vineyard association marked its 50th anniversary in bullish mood with a party at Clarence House hosted by the Duchess of Cornwall.
The same week, some of its members applied for official recognition and protection of the generic name, ‘British Fizz’.
Having already upset the european hierarchy with last year’s eu referendum, the uk is now putting more continental noses out of joint. Last week, it emerged that Britain’s largest wine producer, Chapel Down, has just signed a distribution deal in France, of all places.
after all, several famous French champagne houses have started buying up land in South-east england as global warming nudges perfect growing conditions over the Channel.
Then came news that, having been launched with no fanfare at all, the first trial run of Windsor wine had been a great success.
What’s more, two members of the Royal Household Wine Committee, which advises the Queen on what to serve at royal events, already want to recommend it for inclusion in the royal cellars.
CHaTeau Windsor — as it is not called but will surely be known — is all being made under the careful auspices of a local boy who has gone on to be a global giant in the wine trade. and he is doing it with help from some of the most famous names in the business.
There is certainly no shortage of expertise. This is a wine designed to hold its own against stiff competition, not trade on its royal connections. So I have come to a corner of royal Berkshire that has serious ambitions to compete with historic names such as Taittinger and Bollinger — egged on by the Duke of edinburgh.
The new Windsor Great Park Vineyard Brut follows a pattern of innovation going back to the start of this reign. On her accession to the throne — 65 years ago on Monday — the Queen put the Duke of edinburgh in charge of her estates at Balmoral and Sandringham.
She also appointed him as Ranger of the Great Park, custodian of the 5,000 acres of Crown estate land to the south of Windsor Castle.
under the Duke’s supervision, Sandringham is a major supplier of blackcurrants to Ribena. He has also opened an apple juice factory there that now distributes across Britain. The Duke has even attempted an experimental truffle farm nearby, with mixed results.
and at Windsor the farm shop he created sells lamb, beef, venison, game and other produce from the royal farms and their neighbours. But this is the first time in centuries that Windsor has made wine.
It is being overseen by one of Britain’s foremost wine merchants. and Tony Laithwaite is every bit as excited about this venture as he was when he embarked on a career in wine in Bordeaux in 1969. Back then, he had little more than a van and a few cases of claret. Today, most adults in this country will probably have drunk some of his wine at some point.
With his wife, Barbara, he has created Britain’s biggest wine business and an international network of wine clubs which have sold many millions of bottles worldwide. a lot will have been produced from his own vineyards, scattered around the globe.
Mr Laithwaite, 71, and his family still live not far from Windsor, where he went to school and where he set up his first shop. So when the Duke of edinburgh and his Crown estate team were considering new ideas for the park, including a vineyard, Tony was an obvious potential tenant.
He loved the idea. and I have come to meet him as he checks on his new pride and joy. We drive through the park — past the estate village, the little post office, the social club for Great Park employees and the Duke’s unusual signs imposing a speed limit of ‘38mph’ — and up a track. It leads to a secluded area overlooking Great Meadow Pond. We’re just five miles from Heathrow airport, but we could be in the middle of rural France. ‘I played in the park as a child and grew up wanting to be a farmer, so I’ve come full circle,’ Mr Laithwaite says as he walks me through his vines on a perishing afternoon. Mr Laithwaite was offered several sites, so why pick this one? ‘It’s a south-facing slope, it drains well and it’s backed by woods to the north, which shelter it from the wind,’ he says. ‘and the pond is very useful because it takes the edge off any frost.’ Frost, more than any other element, is the greatest threat to a wine crop, but the water in the pond moderates falls in air temperature. ‘It’s proved to be a very reliable vineyard,’ Mr Laithwaite adds. Soil samples were very promising, too. ‘It sits on what are known as the Thames terraces, which have lots of gravel, and gravel is good for wine,’ says Mr Laithwaite, a former geography student, pointing out that some of the great Bordeaux wines thrive on the gravel below because it drains well and vines like well-drained soil. So, in 2010, he leased a ten-acre plot. a year later, his team covered three-quarters of it with 20,000 vines. The Duke himself has taken a keen interest in progress, frequently dropping in for a look.
The Royal Family will make no money from the wine. Mr Laithwaite rents the land from the Crown estate, which passes its profits to the Treasury (though a percentage of the profits funds the Monarchy’s annual Sovereign Grant).
But there is pride at stake. Like any estate manager, the Duke wants his fiefdom to excel. Besides, the wine could be a very popular feature in his farm shop.
FROM the outset, Mr Laithwaite and his general manager, anne Linder, concentrated solely on quality sparkling wine. Half the vineyard is planted with chardonnay grapes and the other divided between the two pinot varieties.
‘My first vineyard in Bordeaux was the same size and it feels right,’ he says. ‘We’re on the same latitude as Champagne. everything about this is copied from the way they do it in Champagne.’
The Windsor vines have actually been planted a few inches higher above the ground than some of their French counterparts, though. anne Linder explains this improves air circulation and also makes it harder for rogue royal pheasants to peck at the grapes.
all the grapes from the first harvest, hand-picked in 2013, were taken to Ridgeview, a well-known Sussex producer, to be made into wine. The first batch of around 2,000 bottles was ready last autumn and the first was uncorked by one of the most revered names in wine writing, Hugh Johnson.
a nervous moment? ‘It was harvest day and lovely and sunny at the end of September,’ says Mr Laithwaite. ‘You always worry that something’s gone wrong. But it was faultless.’ Mr Johnson was impressed by hints of ‘delicate toasted brioche’ and ‘apricot and citrus notes’.
Most of that first batch was snapped up locally at £35 a bottle, so there isn’t a drop left for me to try. Wine writer Jancis Robinson, who has described it as ‘very respectable’, is a member of the Royal Household Wine Committee. She says she will ‘do her damnedest’ to ensure the committee now puts it on the approved list of wines for future royal receptions.
a bottle was also sent to the Queen and the Ranger. What did they think? ‘We don’t know,’ says Mr Laithwaite diplomatically, pointing out we should not judge a new wine on the first harvest of grapes from two-year-old vines.
Because it takes a few years of pruning for vines to get up to speed, it will still be a couple of years before the vineyard reaches its target production of between 15,000 and 18,000 bottles a year. The Crown estate team say they are very pleased with their new tenant.
What does the competition think? at the Duchess of Cornwall’s Clarence House party for the uk wine industry, everyone seems thrilled to have Windsor wine entering the fray. But there is that nagging question of what to call the stuff.
Like many, the Duchess is unconvinced by ‘British Fizz’. ‘I’m not sure about it,’ she told her guests. ‘We don’t want to let the French beat us with a better name. I think everybody ought to get back to having another little think about it.’ Hugh Johnson, for one, has proposed the name ‘Bubbly’.
Windsor Bubbly? Windsor British Fizz? Berkshire Brut? Ma’ampagne? Whatever they end up calling the new sparkling wine from the Queen’s back yard, it is certainly not going to be your average plonk.