Sparkling English Wine

Our Sparkling English Wine bar in the shadow of the beautiful Glynde Place

We’ve just got back from a weekend exhibiting and selling glasses of English fizz at the superb Glynde Food and English Wine Festival at Glynde Place. And what a festival it was…

We were lucky enough to be among 8 other vineyards from Sussex and Kent at the show, each showing off their superb wines for visitors to sample and purchase. The wine marquee was packed most of the time (especially during the downpours on Saturday!).

There was amazing food produce aplenty in the food tents and stalls lining the lawns of the beautiful house’s grounds. Big names in the cookery world, including MasterChef’s very own John Torode, (who was an enormous fan of the Nyetimber wines we were selling by the glass) were conducting masterclass demos, and there were tutored wine tastings from Stephen Skelton MW and Ewan Lacey MW.

John Torode and MasterChef crew cooking up the Feast!

The Saturday evening saw the MasterChef crew, John Torode, Dhruv Baker, Lisa Faulkner and Tim Anderson were all slaving away over hot stoves for the feast, which was very well attended, and we managed a wine bar in the tent. Bolney Bubbly was served to guests on reception and we sold bottles of this alongside the Lychgate White and Bolney Pinot Noir . All the wines went down very positively and with two bars either side of us (Snowdrop Inn of Lewes, and the Sipsmith Distillery Gin bar) much alcohol was consumed!

The festival offered many people the opportunity to try some amazing food and wines from around England, from producers small and large. A favourite of ours was Timmy’s Pies, run by the lovely Tim Wilkes, who endlessly creates some mouth watering pies, including slow roasted pork shoulder, with beetroot, rhubarb and potato. Mmm…

Tim and Nicki manning the bar

On our stand in the English Wine Marquee, we had Court Garden Vineyard‘s Classic Cuvée 2009, RidgeView Estate‘s brand new release Bloomsbury 2010, Gusbourne Estate‘s Sparkling Rosé and Pinot Noir 2010, Davenport Vineyards‘s Limney Estate Blanc de Blancs 2007 and Horsmonden Dry White 2011, Nyetimber‘s Rosé 2008, Blanc de Blancs 2003, and Classic Cuvée 2007, and Hush Heath Estate‘s Balfour Brut Rosé 2008. All these wines went down very well, and it was a pleasure to talk the many visitors and tasters through English wine production and wines.

Other wine producers exhibiting included, Bluebell Vineyard Estate, Breaky Bottom, Stopham Estate, Upperton, Plumpton College, Bolney Wine Estate, Biddenden, Sedelscombe, and a stand run by the South East Vineyards Association.

We’re already looking forward to next years event, and hope the weather is that little bit better next time round!

Furleigh Estate in full summer bloom...

Summer’s here (apparently!), Murray’s doing well at Wimbledon, and we’ve been flat out here at Sparkling English Wine HQ. With a number of private events recently as well as the Three Wine Men roadshow (in Manchester and Edinburgh) we’ve barely had a moment to breathe!

We’re currently preparing for the Glynde Food and English Wine Festival next weekend where we’ll be running a dedicated Sparkling English Wine bar selling Nyetimber by the glass.  We’ll also be showcasing some wines from top producers from Kent and Sussex in the English Wine Pavilion at Glynde. Come along and see us to sample some superb wines…

To mark the summer time’s arrival, we’ve decided to add a few more products to our ever-growing range of English wine:

Following success at the UKVA wine of the year competition, we’ve recently got hold of some of Furleigh Estate‘s Blanc de Noirs 2009 and their Jubilee Rosé 2009, to complement their most outstanding wine of the year trophy winner, the Furleigh Estate Classic Cuvée 2009.

Danebury Vineyards, whom I visited a month or so ago have impressed us so much with their still wines, that we saw no reason not to pop them on the site too. Joining their delightful Cossack 2005, is the Madeleine Angevine 2009, and the Schonburger 2009, as well as their soon to be listed Reserve 2010.

Sparkling English Wine stalwart Bolney Wine Estate have recently allowed us to show their Foxhole Vineyard Pinot Noir 2011 and Lychgate Red 2009 at the Three Wine Men events to give us a little red wine to prove to the public we can do it here, and they’ve gone down so well, we’re happy to say that we’ve got them both for sale here too…

Gusbourne Estate picked up a big award at the Decanter World of Wine Awards last month for their Blanc de Blancs 2007, and as a result have subsequently sold out of it, along with their equally superb Brut Reserve 2007. They assure us that new vintages will be released in coming months, but to provide more than just their Sparkling Rosé 2008, we have decided to take on their beautifully elegant Pinot Noir 2010, a silky still red that is ideal for summer barbecues…

Davenport Vineyards have recently released their Limney Estate Blanc de Blancs 2007, which is tasting delicious, as well as the new still dry white, the Limney Horsmonden Dry 2011 (coming soon).

Hush Heath Estate have also recently released a new sparkling rosé, their Balfour Brut Rosé 2009, which will be coming to the site soon. We’ve also got their two premium still wines: Nannette’s English Rose 2010, and Skye’s English Chardonnay 2010. We’ve created the Hush Heath Triple Pack, discounting the range of Hush Heath’s wines just for you!

Last, but by no means least, English sparkling wine champions RidgeView Estate have just released their Merret Bloomsbury Cuvée 2010, to follow on from the success of the 2009 vintage. This is the first of RidgeView’s 2010 vintage to be released, and a very exciting wine…

Enjoy some English fizz this summer, and maybe even try a few stills…!

I was fortunate enough to be invited to a lunch and tour of the exquisite Danebury Vineyards last week. The vineyard is perched atop the North Downs close to the beautiful village of Stockbridge. With only 7 acres of vines, Danebury is fairly small, but boy is it pretty. The vines were first planted in 1988, with the first vintage coming in 1993.

Too enthralled to take any snaps (apologies), this blog entry is lacking in pictures of the visit I’m afraid, but I’ve slotted in some of those they sent us when we put their producer page together last year..!

The vines planted in the vineyard are not those most would expect to be grown in the UK. Aside from the Madeleine Angevine and Schönburger, which make the delicate still whites produced at Danebury, there are plantings of Auxerrois Blanc (which is a cross between Gouais Blanc and Pinot Noir) and Ruländer (aka Pinot Gris), which go into making the Cossack. The Cossack is a delicate sparkling wine bottle fermented and rested on lees for at least 5 years. The most recent release is the 2005, which picked up a bronze medal this year at the IWSC and won the Wessex Vineyard Association wine of the year trophy.

I was lucky enough to be shown around the vineyard by the owner, who then showed me down to his custom built underground cellar, where all the wines are stored at a fairly constant temperature (never rising about 14ºc). Also in the cellar was the private collection of every vintage from 1993 to present. An impressive cabinet to say the least.

Following the tour of the cellar, I was sat down to a tasting of the three stills produced – a Madeleine Angevine, a Schönburger, and a Reserve (the latter contains a blend of the whole vineyard in the planted percentages). These were served with spelt bread and rosemary infused olive oil.

- The Madeleine Angevine 2009 is a light and delicate wine, with big flavours of melon, citrus and pear. A good balance of acid and sweetness make this a perfect match for seafood or white meats.

- The Schönburger 2009 again is well balanced, offering a floral, aromatic nose, followed by  dry palate with a clean finish and good length.

- The Reserve 2010 is a fuller wine, with noticeable characteristics from each of the five grapes that go into the blend. A touch of sweetness makes this wine that little bit more complex, when balanced with the backbone of acidity from the Auxerrois and Ruländer. There is a good sense of minerality on the finish.

Then we tucked into a vertical tasting of the most recent vintages from 2006 working our way back to 2002. The owner says that he aims for a more cremant style, with less aggressive bubbles than a Champagne style wine, and as such he believes that within 10 years the wines have reached their shelf life. Of course the flavours are still there, but the bubbles somewhat dissipate over time.

- The 2006 was served with a smoked salmon, which went very well with the citrus palate and the acid of the Auxerrois. The wine is a bit young, and as such has not yet been released.

- The 2005 (the current release) was served with quails eggs and asparagus in a crusty wholewheat tartlet. An absolutely perfect pairing. The malty brioche and citrus nose matched the sweetness from the tartlet, and the asparagus allowed the acids to flow freely and helped to detect a hint of floral palate. The eggs were a gentle creamy touch to meet the biscuity aromas and flavours.

- The 2004 was served with a simple parmesan crusted puff pastry, which made the acids soften and allowed the autolytic nature of the wine to breathe.

- The 2003 was served with a delicious goose liver paté on rye bread. A delicious wine that is probably at the peak of its ageing now. Excellent acids and still a good amount of fruitiness, this wine ate up the paté!

- Last, but definitely not least, was the 2002. This wine was served with Somerset brie on Oatcakes. Again a perfect pairing – there was caramel and biscuit on the nose, which worked ideally with the sweet oatcakes, and the creamy, delicate brie was almost perfect for the nose and acids of the wine.

We are now selling the Danebury Vineyards Cossack 2005 at a superb discounted price of £20.48 and you may well see the still wines making a guest appearance now too!

Tom behind the SEW bar @ Three Wine Men, Manchester

Following a superb event in Manchester at the Three Wine Men last week (see above), the coming week is looking to be fun and frivolous in a fortunate turn of events, English Wine Week (an EWP initiative to promote English wines nationwide) coincides with our very own Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. We are hoping to encourage more people to try English sparkling wine this week, with a couple of initiatives.

Firstly, in conjunction with our friends at Ten Green Bottles in Brighton, we are running an afternoon of English wine at there Wine Shop & Tasting Room on Jubilee Tuesday, the 5th June, next week. We will be serving a wide range of English wines by the glass, and will have a few producers showing their faces for a few hours at a time, including Bolney Wine Estate, Albourne Vineyard and Court Garden, all very local to the Brighton…

The second piece of news is that we have (just in time for Jubilee!) installed a Sparkling English Wine stand with six producers’ wines in Flagship Wines, a superb established wine shop near to St Albans run by the brilliant Julia Jenkins. The selection of wines that they have in store now are Court Garden’s Classic Cuvée 2009, English Oak Engelmann Cuvée 2009, Jenkyn Place Sparkling Rosé 2008, Limney Estate Blanc de Blancs 2006, Ridgeview Merret Knightsbridge Blanc de Noirs 2009 and Meonhill Réserve NV. If you’re in the neighbourhood, stop by and ask Julia for her opinions and pick up some superb English fizz for the weekend!

As the French say, ‘Bon weekend à tout!’

Downs View (Devil's Dyke is the left of the humps)

Albourne Vineyard have a delicate slice of paradise not far from the South Downs in Albourne, East Sussex. With a beautiful view southwards, lie the South Downs and well known Devil’s Dyke, making it one of the closest vineyards to Brighton.

Albourne’s vineyard is made up of 60% Chardonnay and 40% Pinot noir vines which go into creating the blend for their award-winning Gaultsbrook 2009, (so called owing to the brook that runs below the vineyard providing excellent drainage). With a pale gold appearance with a small and delicate bead, leading onto a nose of melon, and English apples this delicate wine also has hints of yeast from the autolysis. The palate has a perfectly balanced sweetness / acidity ratio, offers a refreshing burst of bubbles and a freshness that is English through and through.

Gaultsbrook ready to hit your table...

At the recent IWSC awards, this wine picked up a bronze medal, making it one of the many fabulous English sparklers proving their worth in international competitions this year…

Find out more about Gaultsbrook and Albourne Vineyard here.

We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Jubilee Celebration Pack, consisting of six fantastic wines from producers all over the south of England is:

Julie Kenny from Liverpool!

The package is on it’s way to her now and should arrive before any of the Jubilee’s festivities begin this weekend…

We will continue to sell the Jubilee Celebration Pack, so those that didn’t win the Facebook competition have the opportunity to pick up that or any of our other mixed cases or single bottles.

Thanks to all those who entered, and we are greatly appreciative of the support and likes on Facebook.

Sorry if you didnt win this time, but please stick around on our mailing list and on our Facebook page, as there will be more exciting chances to win the best English sparkling wines, tickets to events and other goodies in the coming months!