English sparkling wine has been gaining prestige in recent years, with some experts comparing it to champagne in taste and quality. Globally, the sector is still relatively small: IWSR Drinks Market Analysis reports that sparkling wine produced in the UK represents about 0.2 per cent of total global sparkling wine volume. But sales are growing: UK-produced sparkling wine volume rose by almost 11 per cent from 2015-2020, the report said. “Maybe 10 years ago, there were only two or three wines which might have been known outside the UK or certainly recognised by wine critics as well,” says Jonathan White, spokesman for British wine producer Gusbourne. “Today there’s a collective of maybe 10 to 20 producers that are making really excellent wines.” Gusbourne planted its first vines in Appledore, Kent, southeast England, in 2004. It released its debut Brut and Blanc de Blanc sparkling wines in 2010, and says demand has been growing ever since. The pandemic gave local producers a boost in 2020 because travellers who couldn’t visit wineries abroad “started to realise that they could actually visit a winery at home”, says Anne McHale, a certified master of wine in London. Talking from The Bloomsbury Hotel, where she has curated one of the largest English sparkling wine menus in the UK, McHale says part of English sparkling wine’s attraction is its close resemblance to champagne. It uses the same three grapes – pinot noir, chardonnay and meunier – and the same production method. Bubbly personalities: five champagne producers with big dreams McHale says the soils where English vines are planted around the South Downs in southeast England contain a lot of chalk that is nearly identical to France’s Champagne region. For all their similarities, there are also factors that give English sparkling wine a unique flavour. “We’re quite a bit further north than Champagne. It’s cooler. And as a result, you get a higher level of acidity in the grapes, which then translates into more of a sort of mouth-watering bite of crispness and freshness in the wine,” says McHale. White agrees. “Champagnes tend to have that sort of lovely, toasty richness … English wines have a much more sort of steely, citrus backbone to them.” Jon Pollard, chief vineyard manager at Gusbourne, says Britain’s longer growing season also affects the flavour. “We’ve got this ability to have a slow ripening season, partly because of the slightly lower temperatures in this country and the lower sunlight levels. But that really allows the flavour profiles within the fruit to build up,” he says. Pollard adds that Kent is perfectly located high off the coastline, providing a free-flowing breeze to keep the crop clean and fresh. “The enemy of fruit really is moisture and humidity and warm temperatures, which proliferate fungal diseases,” he says. At the same time, England’s temperamental climate can prove a challenge. Pollard says it’s taken years of trial and error to create the perfect growing conditions. Some champagne houses are now investing in English vineyards. “We always sort of had the impression that the French think they make the best wine in the world and that the English can’t make wine, so it is quite satisfying in a way to see the French coming over and planting vines,” McHale says. The temperate British climate was a draw for French champagne house Tattinger, which bought farmland in Kent in collaboration with UK winemaker Hatch Mansfield to create Domaine Evremond. Having planted its first vines in 2017, its wines will be released onto the market in the 2020s. Why lower-sugar champagne is the new more “During the growing season of the wine, the average temperatures in the south of England are around the same as what they would have been several decades ago in Champagne,” McHale says. “So, you know, the Champagne producers are seeing the potential of the land in the south of England.”