Sparkling Rosé: England
This, perhaps, is where the UK’s USP might lie. Not just fizz, but pink fizz. For the second year on the trot we had a decent raft of medals and – perhaps more importantly – really good feedback from the tasters. They like this stuff – and it does absolutely no harm that it tends to be £10+ per bottle cheaper than its pink equivalent from Champagne.
So while the odd judge expressed reservations about the price in general of British sparklers (they’re not a bargain basement option, it’s true) most felt they ticked lots of boxes: elegant, local, recognisably similar to champagne, yet distinctively different and, again, better priced.
Many, many congratulations to Fox & Fox, by the way. To pick up three places on our Gold List is completely unprecedented for a single English fizz producer.
From The Tasting Teams
‘For me, it was a dream. You’re seeing the quality of English sparkling come through. Last year, the quality was 50/50, but this is more consistent.’ Harry Ballmann, Folie
‘The big problem is that English sparkling is expensive. I find it’s a difficult sell, and that people generally prefer to go for champagne. The wine is good quality; the problem is price.’ Janusz Pawel Sasiadek, Mercato Metropolitano
‘What was interesting was that you’d be very happy with the cheaper wines. Once we got to the more expensive ones we weren’t necessarily getting better quality.’ Sarah Jane Evans MW, team leader
‘These showed typicity and maturity – nice ripe fruit and zesty aromas.’ José Luis Hernandez, Hakkasan
‘With English wine you have to take price into account, to think, “is this going to fit on a list compared to other wines?‘ Michael Fiducia, Royal Automobile Club
‘The wines from Buckinghamshire, Cornwall and other places are all very different. You’re starting to visualise terroir in England.’ Harry Ballmann, Folie
‘Overall, these had plenty of red fruits and would be very good for serving with food: seafood and oily salmon, maybe some medium salt cheeses.’ Jurijs Nemkovs, StreetXO