First it was Napa, now even ENGLISH wines are beating the French
By Andrew Barrow
You have to take press releases with a pinch of salt. One I received this week proudly proclaimed that a majority of people at a recent tasting favoured an English sparkling wine over Champagne. “English Sparkling wine is top choice on the BRITS wine list” was the heading.
They even managed to get a reference to the World Cup in there; but that’s by-the-by. In the UK it is English Wine Week, not that I realised as I have seen little consumer-orientated promotion or received details of events/tastings or samples. Apart from the note about the English sparkling thrashing a French equivalent.
A blind tasting was held at - a Borough Market restaurant dedicated to British cooking and well-sourced seasonal produce - which found that more than half of those surveyed (53%) voted “sparkling English wine as a more favourable tipple than champagne, suggesting English vineyard owners should be more optimistic than ever!”
Not a huge majority but at least half didn’t spit the wine out and grimace as is so often the case with English still wines. It is the high acidity, sometimes thin flavours and light weight that puts people off English wine. It is an acquired taste especially for someone used to the rich, ripe, often sweet flavours of Australia or Chile.
The climate still makes the production of wine in England (plus a little in Wales) a hit-and-miss affair. Unless you make a sparkling wine. These are really hitting the spot — even the Queen is said to serve the wines at state occasions.
Reports have been constant on French Champagne producers, who incidentally have run out of vineyard space, scouting out the potential of the southern English counties. (Even has been riding over Hampshire countryside.) The soil is the same as in Champagne; if you can find the right spot conditions are nearly identical.
Sadly, production is still small in the UK, and costs are high. A bottle of decent English Sparkling wine costs around the same as a bottle of Champagne (around 20/US$37), and there is thus an understandable reluctance on the part of the consumer to make the leap to the homegrown product. Even with the trend for sourcing local produce, it is going to take time, and plenty more positive publicity, for the public to embrace the homemade stuff.
The wines used for the survey were a non-vintage and Merret Grosvenor 2001. 105 people were served a glass of each with 53% selecting the English wine over the Champagne.
