golfkat Travel Blog

From Winespeed:  Over the last several years, both iconic Champagne producers have invested in southern England’s uncanny combination of chalky soils, climate, and topography—so similar to Champagne’s own terroir.

In 2017, Taittinger planted 50 acres (20 hectares) of traditional Champagne grape varieties near Kent in southeastern England. It was the first time a top Champagne house had planted a vineyard in the U.K. This summer, plans to build a 33K+ case winery adjacent to the venture’s current 550-acre vineyard were approved. The English sparkling wine will be called Domaine Evremond, named after Charles de Saint-Évremond, the French writer credited with introducing 17th-century London society to Champagne. The first vintage is expected in 2024.

Not long after Taittinger’s investment, Pommery purchased and planted 100 acres (40 hectares) of vineyard near Southampton, west of Kent along the southern coast. The following year, Pommery became the first Champagne house to launch an English sparkling wine with the 2018 release of its Louis Pommery England Brut, with grapes purchased from vineyards in Hampshire, Essex, and Sussex. The wine is named for Pommery’s founder.I have heard many good things about the sparkling wines from England.  It turns out the English have been some of the great drinkers of wine.  To the point, think of Willie’s Falstaff (above), and Dickens who liked Sauternes and Chablis.  This is topped only by Winston Churchill (also above), who claimed the four essentials of life were a hot bath, cold champagne, new pears, and old brandy.

According to Punch:  

To anyone who’s been keeping track, the sudden rise of England as a top producer of terroir-driven sparkling wines represents one of the most dramatic wine-industry success stories of recent memory. In the words of English writer Andrew Jefford, “What had once been regarded as a harmless eccentricity has become, over the last decade, one of the wine world’s most promising developments.”

The proof is in the numbers. According to the Wine and Spirits Trade Association (WSTA), 2017 saw a record-breaking amount of English wine released onto the market.  The WSTA also projects that English Sparkling Wine production will double by the year 2022 to approximately 10 million bottles annually (with plans to export at least a quarter of that figure to the United States). This is why the U.K. government’s Food is GREAT campaign teamed up with industry this past October to launch its first British Spirits and Sparkling Wine week in New York City.

Even just a few decades ago, to speak of an “English wine industry” would have smacked of hyperbole. As Gareth Maxwell of Hattingley Valley Wines explains, “In the 1970s, we actually used to grow a lot of German varieties and odd hybrids, but back then it was mostly a cottage industry and the quality wasn’t all that great because the grapes didn’t fully ripen.”

The essential hallmark of the “English style,” is freshness. But not the usual run-of-the-mill, cool-climate freshness, which we associate with any number of places. Imagine extreme freshness—an almost electric jolt of acidity, infused with bracing minerality and orchard fruit. Although individual wineries tend to interpret this profile through their own stylistic lens, it signals the emergence of a singular regional expression that stands apart from the other sparkling wines of the world.

“We’re after a much fresher, cleaner style than Champagne,” Maxwell explains. “We’re not looking for a rich, yeasty style. We want to highlight the quality of our fruit, which is exceptionally high, thanks to our long, cool growing season. That’s what we have in mind when we say we make a uniquely English style of wine.”  I think I would like this style!

I have not seen any in our wine stores here in the US, yet!  But I will try it soon, either in Jolly Olde, on a plane, or a duty-free shop somewhere in Europe.  Or perhaps, Brexit might alter the marketplace for these interesting products?

Can you believe this?  Only from our brethren across the pond.

A special name, 007, for the exclusive Special Cuvée Champagne unveiled by Bollinger in observance of Global James Bond Day on October 5th.  007 is the code name for dashing fictional British Secret Service agent James Bond, who for over 40 years, and 14 of the franchise’s films, has been devoted to “Bolly” (as the Brits call it). The 007 Special Cuvée was intended to accompany the release of the 25th Bond film, No Time to Die, which was postponed to Spring, 2021.

Speaking of our British friends, from Forbes:
     It comes as a surprise to many people that England has a growing sparkling wine industry, or any wine industry at all. It is one of the most rapidly expanding wine regions in the world, with three million new grapevines planted in the first half of 2019 and more than 15 million bottles produced in 2018. One of the standout sparkling wine brands from England is Nyetimber, whose vineyards are spread across Sussex, Hampshire, and Kent. Grapes were planted here in 1988, and husband and wife winemaking team Cherie Spriggs and Brad Greatrix joined Nyetimber one year after current owner Eric Heerema took the helm in 2006. 

So, on my next visit to Jolly Olde, I will definitely give it a try.  But the James Bond vintage is $200 USD!  More from Forbes:  Although quantities vary from year to year depending on weather, Nyetimber produces between 500,000 and 1,000,000 bottles of traditional method sparkling wine each year, using the same three grapes as Champagne: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. Ninety percent of Nyetimber’s output stays in the United Kingdom, with the remainder going into the small but growing export market. Nyetimber’s most important export markets are the United States, Japan, and Scandinavia, where the brand focus has been to make the wines available in top-end restaurants, hotels and bars in order to raise awareness. 

I will try the J Bond vintage, only if it was the Sean Connery version!!!