If you were to go back in time 20 years ago and ask a much younger version of me what I thought about sparkling wines, my reaction wouldn’t have been amazing. If you were to ask me about English sparkling wines, my reaction would have been one of bemusement and confusion. Of course that version of me was just starting to make the transition from beer to wine, but even those who were wine lovers would have known little about the sparkling wines of England despite the fact that they’ve been made there, in varying quantities for several decades now.
It’s only as of late that this type of wine has taken hold and most attribute it to the folks who took over Nyetimber (an American couple) and jolting some energy into a languishing industry. Admittedly many had tried this over the years and had met with middling success but it was Climate Change that was starting to heat up the southern parts of England which also has made it suitable for grape production and wines that strong to be much more than “adequate”.
While I’ve had the opportunity to taste an English sparkling wine (this name is still being debated) it wasn’t until the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium at the end of May where I was able to really sit down and have a taste of what was available. Overall, the wines ranged from decent to quite excellent with the Nyetimber and Sugrue Pierre coming in at the top. In the case of Nyetimber, it’s readily apparent why so much praise has been heaped upon them and it also shows how steady a hand the head winemaker, Cherie Spriggs has been in carving out a high quality trajectory for the wines.
Those lower down in the were all quite serviceable an oddly enough, reminded me a bit of lower mid-range Cavas. A rather strange statement given that I can’t think of two sparkling wine regions more dissimilar from one another.
