Plan B Forum

It captured the hearts of the French some time ago, but now English sparkling wine is preparing for its next major breakthrough – America.

A view of the Camel Valley vineyard in Nanstallon near Bodmin, Cornwall

This week the first full container of English wine will be shipped to the US – 5,000 bottles from four different producers, including some of the best-known names in English wine.

The wines, from Digby Fine English, Hush Heath Estate, Bolney Wine Estate and Camel Valley, are produced in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire and Cornwall. All are award-winning sparkling wines made in the traditional method, and are destined for nine states including New York, Pennsylvania, Montana and Massachusetts, as well as the capital, Washington DC.

For the past five years English wine has been on an unstoppable upward curve. Investment in equipment and expertise, together with a gradual increase in global temperatures, means Britain’s sparkling wines – 90% of which are made with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, the three grapes used to make champagne – rival the world’s best fizz.

Such is the suitability of the chalky soils of southern England that two champagne houses, Taittinger and Vranken-Pommery, have invested millions in setting up operations here. One owner of a major vineyard said he had turned down an offer from another champagne house of “more than €6m” for his business. America has been slower to catch on, but word is spreading beyond New York, where any sommelier who reckons to have their finger on the pulse will know about English wine. “It’s no longer a novelty. It’s now known there are great sparkling wines coming out of England,” said Liz Willette of New York importer Grand Cru Selections. In Washington DC another importer, Siema, is busily taking orders for cases of Ridgeview, one of the best-known English wines. “Interest is overwhelming,” said the company’s Andrew Stover.

The latest batch of exporters are concentrating on the smartest retailers and restaurants. “It’s a huge deal for us. This is a world-class product and it deserves its place on all the great wine lists,” said Trevor Clough, head blender at Digby Fine English. Digby’s 2010 Vintage Reserve Brut sells for £39.99 in Selfridges and Harvey Nichols and will cost around $75 in the US.

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Bigot alert!

Bicycle Bill wrote:

MajGenl.Meade wrote:Bigot alert!

rubato may have some pre-conceived notions about things, but in this case I am going to stand firmly and squarely behind him.
De gustibus non est disputandum. Suum cuique.
And if this makes rube (or me) a bigot in your eyes, then maybe you should worry less about the chip on rube's shoulder and more about the two-by-four on your own.

English wine is more useless than English beer. It will never rise above 3rd rate.

rubato wrote:Captured the hearts of the french? What a fucking joke. I have been in many parts of France and none of them were so debased as to put english wines on the menu.

English sparkling wine was on Wednesday toasting a spectacular victory over the French version – as an elite group of Parisian experts said it was better than champagne.

In the first tasting of its kind in Paris, those taking part said the English sparkling wine was better in two out of three categories, and it drew with the champagne in the other.

Among the successes was a £40 bottle of 2009 Nyetimber sparkling wine produced in West Sussex. Nine members of the 14 member panel thought it was better than a £65 bottle of Billecart-Salmon Grand Cru champagne.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04 ... d-tasting/

Taittinger is to become the first French champagne house to produce fizz in the UK after investing in a former Kent apple orchard.

The company has teamed up with British wine agents Hatch Mansfield and private investors to buy 69 hectares of farmland near Chilham and expects to fill its first bottles in five years.

In a £4m investment plan, the first 40 hectares at Selling Court farm will be planted with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes in 2017 to produce English sparkling wine – only fizz produced in the Champagne region of France can carry the title.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... ne-in-kent

English wine is more useless than English beer. It will never rise above 3rd rate.

oldr_n_wsr wrote:The taste of it was not on the radar. Where it came from was not even considered.
I drank for effect.
Proof/percentage of alcohol, now that mattered.

English wines 2016 Award Winners

6 wins Decanter World Wine Awards

94 wins International Wine Challenge

7 wins International Wine & Spirit Competition

36 wins The Champagne & Sparkling Wine World Championships

32 wins Sommelier Wine Awards

3 wins Effervescents du Monde

Did you start out drinking good stuff for the taste, and then eventually it didn't matter anymore?

Me, if I was ever gonna get HUGE, it would be from crusty garlic loaves slathered with melted Camembert and gorgeous pasta dishes heaped with quality EVOO and cheese and garlic-butter-topped, bacon wrapped filet mignons and many, many trips for take-out Pad Thai, etc.

Jarlaxle wrote:I deliver to a store that has one dude who buys and drinks a 30-pack of Genessee Cream Ale every DAY.