English sparkling wine

fatloong · 發表於 2014-4-26 22:05:23

Despite London being the biggest wine trade center and the British's love of wine, UK was never an important wine producing country due to its cold weather.  Planting has been mainly Seyval Blanc and some German varieties as these can still ripe in cold weather.  However, this is at the expense of the quality of the wine produced.

However, all these changed in the past 10 year or so.  UK has finally find its way in making Champagne like sparkling wines, called English Sparkling Wine.  The cold climate together with the limestone soil is ideal for planting Chardonnay and Pinot Noir for use of sparkling wine (ripeness required for sparkling wine is lower than normal still wine).  Obviously, traditional method was used with typical extended aging on the lees to ensure good quality.

These wines received high ratings world wide and is considered as good as Champagne.  Due to the very small production (vineyard area in UK is just around 1,500 ha.  For comparison, vineyard area of Pauillac is about 1,200 ha) and the British want to drink great wine made in their own country, price of English Sparkling Wines are not cheap.  Typical bottles (usually has vintage) sell for GBP20-30 in UK, almost the same as Champagne.  Because of the high price and lack of awareness, they are almost non-exist in HK.

Tried the one below yesterday, only 16,500 bottles made but is available in HK (I think like $348).  It is vintage 2009, mostly Chardonnay and probably has been aged on the lees for 3 years.  It is slightly lighter in body and more acidic than typical champagne, but the fruit and autolytic flavor is comparable to a NV Champagne.  It is a good sparkling wine (better than typical AU/NZ traditional method) but at this price point, don't think it is particularly attractive.  There are some good small Champagne producers that could offer better quality at about the same price.

English Sparkling.jpg