British bubbles
BILL KNOTT on the joys of domestic sparkling wine
Oh, how I have missed this, I thought, as I gazed across a vineyard planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. It was bathed in a warm evening glow, I had a glass of fizz in one hand, some fine charcuterie in the other, and all was right with the world.
I was not, however, surveying the Côte des Blancs or the Montagne de Reims. I was about 300 miles north-west of Champagne, a short drive from Arundel in West Sussex, at a dinner to celebrate English wine.
The vineyard is in the grounds of The Pig in the South Downs, which opened in late summer, and the charcuterie was described – more patriotically – as ‘Piggy Bits’.
The Pig has long championed local food on its ‘25-mile Menu’; more recently, group sommelier Luke Harbor told me, they have done the same with English wine. They were pouring Nyetimber instead of Champagne back in 2014, then switched to Hambledon Classic Cuvée (widely available, and a great introduction to the joys of English fizz: around £30) and now, as vineyards have mushroomed all over the south of England, more local offerings are poured at each hotel.
Kent, for example, is rapidly becoming the Wine Garden of England - names to try include Simpsons Wine Estate, Hush Heath, Chapel Down and Biddenden - while Hampshire, Sussex, Dorset, Cornwall and Somerset all have notable producers, too. There are a few in Wales and a handful as far north as York. Should you want to find one near you, winecellardoor.co.uk has a useful map of more than 200 vineyards that welcome visitors.
English sparkling wine first flourished in the mid-1990s, when Stuart and Sandy Moss, a wealthy American couple with a passion for sparkling wine, released their first vintage of Nyetimber, despite the man from the Ministry of Agriculture telling them to give up.
They ignored him and - despite the predations of the Great Storm of 1987 that memorably left Sevenoaks, 40 miles away, with only one oak - planted the first vineyard in England dedicated solely to the three major Champagne grape varieties. They also built a small, modern winery, releasing their 1992 vintage in 1997 to a fanfare of praise. Its quality confounded both the critics and a sceptical wine trade, and won a hatful of prizes.
Before then, English wine had largely been made on a small scale by amateurs and hobbyists. On the back of Nyetimber’s startling success, English sparkling wine started to attract serious investment, turning a cottage industry into a modern, high-tech, multi-million pound
The royals started pouring English fizz, not Champagne, at official dinners
business. The royals started pouring English fizz, not Champagne, at official dinners, and wines from a whole clutch of English vineyards started to win awards at prestigious international wine competitions.
A few years ago, even Taittinger snapped up an old apple orchard in Kent and planted vines.
Sacrebleu and zut alors! The most compelling reason to plant Champagne grapes in southern England was what lured the Mosses to their ancient estate in West Sussex: the soil.
The South Downs (and, for that matter, the White Cliffs of Dover) are part of the same belt of chalk that runs through some of the best vineyards in Champagne.
‘Aha,’ said the French. ‘But terroir is not just about soil. It is also concerned with aspect and climate, and England is too far north.’
They had a point. Thanks to the Gulf Stream, winters in southern England are generally milder than in the more Continental-influenced Champagne region.
And summers are cooler, the sun is lower in the sky for most of the day, and grapes in poorer years will struggle to ripen. There is also the potential here for late frosts, catching vines when they are at their most vulnerable and – literally – nipping them in the bud.
Nevertheless, by using the most suitable clones of grape varieties, the right techniques to train vines and by employing modern methods in the cellar, the Mosses and other plucky English winemakers persevered, and (perhaps with some help from global warming) they have triumphed.
While English fizz will never match the scale of production that Champagne can boast, it has transformed itself from a wine enjoyed only by the most patriotic to a product that we all can be proud of, a wine to drink for its quality as well as its provenance.
It is, I think, the perfect tipple for the festive season and a more interesting gift than Champagne.
Recent bottles I have tried and enjoyed include Gusbourne’s Blanc de Blancs 2016, and Ridgeview’s Blanc de Noirs Limited Release 2014 (the Wine Society, £53 and £35, respectively thewinesociety.com). Do try the red fruit-scented Wiston Estate Rosé 2014 from the South Downs (Hawkins Bros, £38.50 hawkinsbros.co.uk). Then there’s the multiple award-winning Chalklands Classic Cuvée 2018 from Simpsons Wine Estate (Roberson Wine, £28 robersonwine.com, or £168 for a case of six bottles simpsonswine.com). Waitrose also stocks a commendably extensive selection of English fizz: 48 of them at last count. Santé, or - as we say in England - cheers!