A NEW KING?! English Sparkling Wine vs. Champagne

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I use this wine key: Laguiole en Aubrac Wine Key Ebony
I have used this glass in this Video: RIEDEL Veritas Champagne
I have tasted the following wines in this Video:

Coates & Seely Sparkling Rosé:

Pol Roger Réserve Brut:

Taittinger Prestige Rosé:

Nyetimber Classic Cuvée Brut:

96-100: An extraordinary wine of profound and complex character displaying all the attributes expected of a classic wine of its variety. Wines of this caliber are worth a special effort to find, purchase and consume.
90 - 95: An outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character. In short, these are terrific wines.
80 - 89: A barely above average to very good wine displaying various degrees of finesse and flavor as well as character with no noticeable flaws.
70 - 79: An average wine with little distinction except that it is soundly made. In essence, a straightforward, innocuous wine.
60 - 69: A below-average wine containing noticeable deficiencies, such as excessive acidity and/or tannin, an absence of flavor or possibly dirty aromas or flavors.
50 - 59: A wine deemed to be unacceptable.

Champagne is the king of bottle-fermented sparkling wine – there, I said it – but there are new contenders for the throne, and one has been making the rounds a lot in recent years. Compared to the centuries of tradition in Champagne English sparkling wine is a relatively new invention. The new wave – if you can call it that - of vineyard plantings in England started in the middle of the 20th century and today there are around 200 wineries covering 3,700 hectares of vineyards in England.

The region of Champagne alone covers 34,200 hectares 10 times all of the vineyards in England. More than half of the vineyard surface area in England was planted since 2010 and the hybrid and/or German workhorse varietals such as Bacchus, Seyval Blanc, and Solaris have been widely replaced by Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier.
The latter three varietals are of cause also the main varietals in champagne and the climate as well as some of the soils, such as Kimmeridgian limestone, are similar to Champagne.
The cool and often wet conditions in the area are pretty good for the production of sparkling wine but they are also tough growing conditions if you are trying to make wine commercially.

Nevertheless more and more English producers have started making bottle-fermented sparkling wine in a similar style to Champagne and today we are going to find out, whether they can rival or even defeat the King of Sparkling wine in a blind tasting.

[equesta]

English Sparkling winemaker here. Don't be too worried about getting the two sides of the channel mixed up. English Sparkling was heavily influenced by Champagne anyway and what usually gives it away is the acidity and slightly less autolytic notes. The exception would of course be Nyetimber, I think they've got a good collection of reserve wines so they would be able to blend more complexity and aged notes. Plus the original winemaker was Champenoise! 😉

[williamrobinson]

I always assumed that "Method Britainique" would mean "plant extra vines and hope for some decent weather", and I say this as an Englishman, but perhaps I'm wrong.. Sadly the real winner here perhaps is climate change.. I suspect that when one goes up to the really pricey Grand Cru level, Champagne still comes out on top.. Very interesting and I definitely would like to try more English sparklers. Nice one Konstantin! 🥂Cheers. 🌟👍

[James-vwnu]

Wow great timing !

We just received our first shipment of Nyetimber just last month in australia and had a chance to taste the 2014 BDB just last week and was blown away. Phenomenal stuff !

[nickolausj]

I've been blown away by the quality of some of the English producers. The price to quality ratio can be amazing given the cost of champagne.

[RCTricking]

Great video idea! If English can get better distribution to get lower prices and more availability in US then I will try!

[drmatthewhorkey]

Thanks a ton... I'm VERY weak when it comes to knowledge of English sparklers... All your fellow MWs said hello from Croatia!

[HouseOfFeck]

Great fun! I guessed wine 5!! Loved the TU with Pol Roger, very convincing and good!! I live in English Sparkling Kent and picked grapes this harvest for Gusbourne, Appledore xx

[jordanh]

I’ve been through like all the main wine channels. This one is my favorite. It’s the most genuine/trustworthy and you have a great personality. I hope you keep this going.

[remifjelldal]

the nyetimber rose is fantatic, for me 94p wine. and i would agree that the normal cuve is around 92. interesting tasting, here in Norway we are definitly plessed by the fact that we get A LOT of good english sparkeling on the market. and they are great! for me English sparklign is more or less a the equivalent to a cru in champagne (in the meaning of "just an extention of the "champagne region").(sorry to all the purist) But I love champagne (which when i say this, includes english sparkling) Great idea, I want to repeat this type of tasting myself!

[aglass]

I’m so glad you’ve covered these two regions/countries for sparkling wine. It confirms that English sparkling isn’t all hype. Hoping to add some English sparkling to our list. But one other thing remains is the image champagne has had in our lifetime.. it’s always going to be the go to sparkly to celebrate that special occasion sadly. You can’t quite say ‘lets crack open a bottle of English’ as opposed to open a ‘bottle of champagne’ - doesn’t quite have the same effect due to the historical and reputation champagne developed in all these years. Great video.

[undisclosedperson]

I recently swapped my fridge filler from Champagne Palmer and Pol Roger to Nyetimber (and Levrier from Australia). Nyetimber Rose and Brut are both superb wines for the money and every bit as good/better than similarly priced Champagne.

[connorwinton]

I love how new places in the world for wine growing are being used and discovered. As climate change changes our world we must adapt and find new places to grow grapes for our favorite beverage and I'm here for it.

[dublodave]

I have been following Nyetimber from it's early days. The estate was originally set up by Stuart & Sandy Moss (a couple of Americans) in the late 1980's. I had the privilege to meet them a few times in the 1990's and still have a few bottles of their 1993 (their second commercial vintage) in my cellar (together with their 96's and half a dozen later vintages). I opened a bottle of the 93 in December and it was incredible, certainly on a par with some of the Grand Marque's of Champagne and still with quite a good few years of life left in it, superb fizz..

[bobmarley]

I heard we were getting up there in quality it's good to hear an unbiased opinion, I think I will have to try more English sparkling, it is interesting that you got the pol roger mixed up, a wine that I think was designed for the English palate as many champagnes were. A great tasting

[alexg]

Good video, a great selection of sparkling wines to compare. I’ve had Nyetimber before, was impressed with it.
Funnily enough this weekend we went for a tasting at Gusbourne in Kent. They had some really good sparkling wines on offer, definitely worth you trying. The Blanc De Noir was very impressive.

[antonygann]

Yes Constantin! I’ve been anticipating this video for some time.

[ecmo]

If you haven't already, try Gusborne. To my tastes, it's even better than Nyetimber, which was my favorite English Fizz for a long time. I love what the top English producers are doing, and I really enjoy introducing people to their wines. "English wine" almost always gets me a funny look from new friends, but they're quickly convinced after tasting them.

[der_weinigel]

we’ve honestly all been waiting for this showdown ! n

[paulmartin]

Wow, 1-0 to England! 🍾 Great to see English sparking wine more than hold its own against two titans from Champagne. Love the Nyetimber, and also their demi-sec. I can heartily recommend Woodchester 2017 Blanc de Blancs from Gloucestershire as well as their excellent sparkling rosé.

England is also making some very good still whites (e.g. Lyme Bay Shoreline) and even a few nice reds - Simpsons Rabbit Hole Pinot Noir 2020 a recent highlight.

Really interesting video, thank you!

[BillCameronWC]

I’ve had Nyetimber sparkling wines several times over the years & think it often gives Champagne a run for its money. The only one of the four I’ve not sampled is the Coates & Seely so that’s one I’ll certainly look out for. One of my favourite Champagnes is Pol Roger, both NV & Vintage, & I’ve had it many times over the years. Taittinger I’ve not had so frequently, but often enough and it’s usually very good. My other favourite champagne for many years though has been Veuve Cliquot, NV for regular occasions, a decent vintage for something more special. I got to know this Champagne pretty well when I lived for a number of years in Paris and either had it there, or on my frequent weekend trips to the nearby Champagne region for lunch on Saturdays and Sundays, so was lucky enough to visit a number of producers there, some of the better known houses as well as some of less famous ones. Often for special occasions I’ll have pink champagne or English pink sparkling wine. As I’m British (Scottish in fact) I will quite often try and offer English sparkling wine to foreign, specially French, guests, as mostly they will never have sampled it before and I find it great fun to see their reactions when they learn where it came from. Unfortunately English wines, whether sparkling or still, are never going to be very cheap, because of the low yields and sometimes precarious weather, but they are often well made so are worth sampling. I find it very interesting how confounding blind tastings can be even for an expert such as you, and your videos are always so informative and balanced.