Yesterday there was a very special Sunday Lunch courtesy of Kim and Andrew in Sydney, so I just had to crack open one of my few remaining bottles of Nyetimber classic cuvee 1996 thats been hiding deep in my cellar...
Masters of wine Serena Sutcliffe and Jancis Robinson have both raved about this particular English rose:100% methode Champenoise Chardonnay from the rolling hills of Sussex, which according to reputable sources such as The Guardian, The Daily Mail and Which? Magazine has been known to beat the real French Champagne in blind taste offs. The Queen served it at her 50th jubilee, Tony Blair loved to show it off at 10 Downing St and most recently it's sibling the 1998 Blanc de Blancs shone at the G20 Summit.
From the heart of the English Downs, Nyetimber continues to build upon its reputation as the premium English sparkling wine to rival Champagne. In recent years Nyetimber has been selectively acquiring additional viticultural land, using meticulous selection criteria to identify sites that could match or exceed the exceptional quality of their existing property. To date Nyetimber has 260 acres planted with the three Champagne varieties, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier creating one of the largest vineyards in the UK. The winemaking team led by Cherie Spriggs continues to uphold the very high standards established from the earliest Nyetimber vintages based on traditional Champagne methods including the ageing of all wines on lees for a minimum of three years and in some cases even longer prior to disgorging. In recognition of this high quality, Nyetimber Classic Cuvée has won the Yarden Trophy at the IWSC for the best sparkling wine in the world on two occasions.
Eric Heerema, new owner of Nyetimber is delighted that Nyetimber is listed at leading restaurants, including Le Gavroche, Gordon Ramsay, Petrus, Orrery, Umu, The Ivy and The Dorchester, among many others.
Personally I have been a big fan of this house since I first tasted Nyetimber next to the duck pond with owner Andy Hill in 2004 . So I'm just delighted that I will get a chance to taste the latest vintages from Nyetimber, and other leading British Bubbles such as RidgeView and Camel Valley first hand during English Wine Week at the end of May... Bubbly Blighty here I come!!!
Now you've whetted my tastebuds too...what an interesting post- they all are, but this one taught me a great deal I ddnt know about English sparkling wines- a tradition I have read about that pre-dates the invention of Champagne in France- according to the book The Widow Clicquot. Can you confirm that s a fact?
ReplyDeleteGosh its kind of a long story MsMaverick, but basically, in the good old days (pre 17th century) Champagne was a dull thin red wine without any bubbles which either came from the mountain or the river. "English glass" - which was coal fired rather than wood fired and therefore much stronger than French glass was used for bottling by the English aristocracy in their cellars, where the servants added sugar and molasses to wines imported in barrels from France to make the wine drink "brisk and sparkling"
ReplyDeleteIt took a while for sparkling Champagne to catch on in France itself and much later grey or white wines became the fashion
Hence the first mention of Sparkling Champaign is by an English scientist Merrett in the mid 1600s - so people sometimes say its the English that invented Champagne not the French
Cheers
Champagne Jayne :-)