English bubbly beats champagne for first time to win top award

LONDON: A prestigious award for sparkling wine has gone to an English bubbly rather than a wine from the Champagne region in France for the first time ever.

Nyetimber’s £130 (Rs 15,000) Blanc de Blancs 2016 Magnum on Tuesday became the first ever non-Champagne wine to win the Champion Sparkling Wine Trophy at the International Wine Challenge (ICW) in London in the competition’s history.

It was described by judges as a “racy, pithy blanc de blanc.. a time capsule of a wine with mouth-watering acidity, citrus zest and camomile, with a chalky finish”. It achieved 97 points, beating four others in the shortlist including the €260 (Rs 27,000) champagne Le Clos Lanson Blanc de Blanc 2010.

Nyetimber’s head winemaker, Cherie Spriggs, also won Sparkling Winemaker of the Year for the second time, having first been awarded the trophy in 2018. At that time, she was the first person outside of Champagne to win the award and the first woman.

British wine has never had more sparkle. Nyetimber is now the favourite among discerning high classes in the UK and is served at top restaurants, hotels and bars such as Annabel’s, The Goring, The Savoy and The Ivy. Nyetimber is not yet on sale in India.

Spriggs and husband Brad Greatrix, who have been making English sparkling wine at Nyetimber, an historic estate, which appears in the Domesday Book, now owned by Dutchman Eric Heerema, since 2007, put its success down to the greensand and chalk soils at their 11 vineyards in West Sussex, Hampshire, and Kent. The soil is similar to that of the Champagne region thanks to the same chalk seam which runs under the English Channel.

With the weather in England getting warmer owing to global warming, the South Downs has become ideal for growing the classic champagne grapes: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier.