Western Daily Press (Saturday)
Giving our vineyards something to celebrate
The relaxation of rules governing the production and sale of sparkling wine is going to deliver a small but significant boost to the growing English sector, Bridgwater and West Somerset MP Ian Liddell-Grainger tells Defra Secretary Steve Barclay
DEAR Steve, At this time of year when so many families have treated themselves to a bottle of something fizzy to welcome the new year, I was particularly heartened to read of your announcement removing some of the constraints on the sale of home-produced sparkling wine.
Particularly, of course, the requirement for it to be sold sealed with a mushroom-shaped cap, a wire cage and a foil top – a mode of presentation which naturally adds to a producer’s costs while not making an iota of difference to the contents.
Leaving aside entirely the fact that the classic champagne bottle was first developed to contain sparkling English cider, this is a very welcome simplification which will be cheered by the several dozen English vineyards now operating in this sector of the drinks market.
Sparkling wine packaging rules were one of the provisions we adopted as we joined the EU and I am delighted that at last we find ourselves in a position to dump them.
Their introduction, of course, represented an extension here of some of the irritating, unnecessary and frankly ludicrous conventions pertaining in the continental wine industry. Particularly the French end of it where rule, regulation and custom are followed slavishly to the letter, fierce jealousies rage, and woe betide anyone who kicks over the traces.
I do not use the word ‘ludicrous’ lightly. I was once taken to visit a vineyard in Burgundy where the owner explained how tightly he was constrained by the appellation system. He showed me a section of vines from which his Grand Cru wines were produced, selling at dozens of euros a bottle. On the other side of a 12 foot-wide track, however, were vines from which only bog standard wine could be produced because the delineation of the appellation zone ran right down the middle of the track.
Same variety of grape, same soil, same aspect – yet the wine they yielded was officially inferior simply because of a line drawn on a map some time in the distant past. And of course customers had to take it on trust that the expensive bottles they were buying weren’t actually filled with stuff from the wrong side of the track.
The same goes for champagne, naturally. Sparkling wines from within the official production area can claim a premium simply because of where they originated. But the label is no guarantee of quality. In fact a lot of champagne is actually overpriced rubbish and vastly inferior to many sparkling wines produced elsewhere but which cannot carry that same prestigious label which persuades punters to dig deeper into their pockets.
Which brings me neatly back to the English sparkling wine sector which in southern areas is now delivering to market wines which rank with champagne, being produced from Chardonnay or Pinot Noir grapes grown on identical chalky soils.
Indeed, some of them are already seeing off competition from real champagne in various championships, though that is a matter French wine producers are rather bootfaced about and would rather you didn’t mention. But the point is, climate change is already affecting champagne production. In recent years summers have been too scorchingly hot and crops have withered while the UK is experiencing comparatively more benign conditions, which are perfect for the production of sparkling wine which is why a number of French houses are furiously buying up chalklands for new plantings.
So has champagne had its day? Is the UK about to lay claim to the title of leading sparkling wine producer? And if so, will we need to come up with some sort of generic name for the stuff? Who knows?
But thanks to Defra, at least, for finally accepting what a success story it now has on its hands. Cheers!
Yours ever, Ian