Grape Britain rivals classic French Champagne
A winery in southern Britain is producing sparkling wines that rival Champagne in international competitions. It is even promoting the idea that the drink was invented by a British physicist.
Christopher Merret delivered a paper on fermenting wines for a second time in the bottle to London's Royal Society in 1662. France's Dom Perignon, synonymous with Champagne, started winemaking only in 1668.
Britain's Ridgeview Estate has, for the third time in seven years, won the best international sparkling wine accolade. Its Grosvenor 2007 was awarded the Best Bottle Fermented Sparkling Wine in the 2011 International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC) in Britain. The winery also picked up two silver medals at the Hong Kong IWSC held earlier this month. Ridgeview Fitzrovia Sparkling Ros?2004 was served at a state dinner hosted by Queen Elizabeth for President Barack Obama.
Corks of champagne-style sparkling wine have been popping across Europe, Australia and America for years, although not all carbonated wine uses the same method as France's famed Champagne region, some 130 kilometres northeast of Paris.
Ridgeview's version, far more evolved than Merret's ideas and known as methode champenoise in French, involves a second fermentation in the bottle after one in a barrel or vat.
It uses wine combinations from only three permitted grape varieties - chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. These and other regulations are controlled by a government-affiliated organisation: Comit?Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne (CIVC). Ridgeview Estate, located on the gentle slopes of the South Downs in Sussex, has adopted the methode champenoise with rapid success.
This family-run winery makes blends and some single-variety sparkling wines. With a similar climate and chalky and limestone terrain as the famous French region, its vines, dating back 17 years, were planted with advice from the Champagne Institute of Oenology. But the winery aligns itself with Merret's philosophies, and all varieties bear the words Cuvee Merret on their labels.