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Off to Spain for Christmas staying with a mix of Spanish & French family who know their Cavas & Champagnes. Any recommendations for a good English sparkler that will knock their socks off?
Got the cheese sorted, a good marbled slab of Montgomery, just not familiar with any good/great English fizz
saw one in the local Aldi last night for £15. Was tempted, as when they do expensive booze it's often quite good.
Sorry, that's probably not much help. 😆
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Classy 🙂
Hattingley, Cottonworth or Hambledon.
http://www.caviste.co.uk/england.html - The 2010 Hattingley is superb.
http://www.cottonworth.co.uk/our-wines.html - I prefer their rosé.
Chapel Down and Nyetimber are both very nice. Denbies Greenfields is good too if you want a tenuous cycling link!
My wife finds decent offers on Nyetimber at the moment.
If you want to buy British thats ok but you'll get better wines for less money in Spain.
jambalaya true, but I just want to rub their noses in it ( a bit) as they have yet to be convinced that we can produce a half decent wine. Or am I on a hiding to nothing?
njee20 - MemberChapel Down
Pick up some Curious Brew from these chaps whilst you're at it.
The curious brew is great
Depends on your friends! Snobbery will potentially mean they won't admit it, but many English sparkling wines are deemed to be champagne rivals these days.
If they think it can't possibly be any good unless it's in a Moët bottle you're wasting your money.
If they're genuinely interested and open minded you've got a number of good suggestions here.
Gusbourne Brut is very good stuff.
Camel Valley Wines may be worth a look (well I liked them)
[url] https://www.camelvalley.com/shop?cat=4 [/url]
Nyetimber is the best IMO, I would put it above Veuve and Bollinger but below Krug
Chapel down is lovely stuff.
The curious range is excellent. The porter, IPA and the lager!
This is my local vinyard, in Leeds. Not had any from there for a while but it was pretty nice when we had some a few years ago. Actually, I might get some more for Christmas....
http://www.leventhorpevineyard.co.uk/wines.html
Nyetimber is the best IMO, I would put it above Veuve and Bollinger but below Krug
Certainly Nyetimber seems to win the prizes.
Bloody expensive though. Foreigners don't tend to get all snobby about wines like us and Merkans. They've been at it far too long.
Another vote for the Camel Valley sparkling here.
As you poor the English sparkling wine, educate the salivating crowd with stories of how Christopher Merret's brainchild predated the efforts of the good Dom Perignon by many decades - we know who invented the stuff!!
(agree with jambas that Eng wine is overpriced generally though)
@pedro we certainly can produce a decent sparkling wine and yes you'll find something good which should do the job of proving we can make a decent wine. Given climate change that shouldn't be surprising to your friends as we are not that much further north than Champagne region and fizzy wine isn't so dependent on grape / soil quality factors.
At my daughter's wedding we had a supermarket blanc de blanc bought in France which given taxes / pricing etc worked out at £4 a bottle, uk can't compete due to duty charges and volume of course.
Nyetimber is bloody lovely, really nice indeed.
Camel Valley sparkling Pinot Noir Rosé is very very good.
Cottonworth, though my opinion on sparkling isn't worth a lot. Mrs B on the other hand...
Another vote for Camel Valley here 😀
I think they were the first UK vineyard to beat the French and win an award for their sparkling
if you want a tenuous cycling link!
I regularly ride past Cottonworth. 🙂
+1 for Chapel Down. We use it at work and it's been consistently good since 1995.
A couple of years ago we asked all the vineyards in the South East for a bottle to test as we get through 300-400 bottles a year. A hard life I know! We compared 12 different English Sparkling Wines to Chapel Down and only Nye Timber beat it. Unfortunately it's another £10 a bottle and we couldn't justify it.
If you're looking at spending a little more (£35) then a friend bought round some Taittinger which was nice.
Nyetimer, and I would go for the demi sec as it is an easier drink. The blanc de blanc ain't bad either. Majestic Wines had some offers on sparkling wines...
I regularly ride past Cottonworth
I ride through Nyetimber's vineyards. But that's even more tenuous. Denbies was a 'fan site' for the Olympic road race though, and their roundabout has a cycling sculpture thingummy.
Nyetimber premiere cuvee FTW. Expensive but worth it. Also+1 for Camel Valley (go for the rosé) and Chapel Down (which is a little cheaper).
At my daughter's wedding we had a supermarket blanc de blanc bought in France which given taxes / pricing etc worked out at £4 a bottle, uk can't compete due to duty charges and volume of course.
If you believe hard enough, we'll be competitive.
Think I heard Denbies' most popular wine is sparkling and claims that sparkling is where they and English wines compare best with stuff over the channel.
Not that I can stand the stuff. Sparkling tastes like aspirin to me and gives me headaches. A free glass at an event to raise a toast or whatever is the most I can cope with.
Only true wine is red and no wine should have bubbles, IMHO 😛
Nyetimber is good, Court Garden also wins a lot of prizes but isn't cheap (£25 a bottle!)
I know Nyetimber wins all sorts of awards, but I've found the shelf stuff from M&S is a bit too full on "gooseberry/cooking apple" mouth suckingly sour (rather than pleasantly dry/brut), Chapel Down preferred here. Don't get me wrong it has flavour in bags, but actually I prefer somehting a little more subtle.
Another vote for Nyetimber; non-vintage, vintage and rosé.
The rosé is on 25% discount at Waitrose.
Exton Vinyard on the South Downs Way are up and coming.
https://www.extonparkvineyard.com/?age-verified=c05be7530a
More for Nyetimber.
A couple of years back waitrose were pumping it out at £10 a bottle. I thought I'd give it a go. It was bloody lovely!
Went back the next day with a wheelbarrow but it was all gone...