They Make Sparkling Wine in England?!?

Show Notes

Episode #234: They Make Sparkling Wine in England?!?  00:00

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KEY QUESTIONS

• Is English sparkling wine actually as good as Champagne?
• Did England actually make sparkling wine before Champagne?
• How big is the English sparkling wine industry?
• What does English sparkling wine taste like?
• What food pairs with English sparkling wine?

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Episode Overview and First Thoughts on British Bubbly  00:34
Hello fellow wine buffs! And welcome to The Wine Pair Podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in crime, Carmela. And we are The Wine Pair! 

If you're new to our podcast, here's what we do: Every week we buy wines under $25 with our own money, taste them, and give you our brutally honest opinion on whether they're worth buying. Nobody pays us to review specific wines, we don't accept free bottles from wineries, and we're not afraid to call out a bad wine when we taste one. Decanter Magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining - so if that sounds like your vibe, welcome to our tribe of wine lovers.

Carmela, this week we are doing several things that we have never done before, which is super exciting, and we are completely breaking what has been the basic approach of our podcast since day one, namely finding great wines under $25. First, let me tell you how we are breaking all of our rules, and then we will tell you why. 

So, here are the rules we are breaking. As already mentioned, we are choosing a wine that is not under $25. This wine, on the website garagiste where we bought this wine, and which offers wines each day at a discount, we bought it for just over $43. The second rule we are breaking is that today we are only going to taste and review one bottle of wine, rather than two. And, third, this wine is not going to be super easy to find, which is also one of our criteria, because what good is a wine that we rate and review as a buy that is so niche you can’t get it? Getting this bottle is possible online, but not easy, and, overall, British bubbly is a hit or miss proposition in the US still in terms of availability. 

So, those are the rules we are breaking, and so now you may ask, why are we doing this? Well, there are a few really solid reasons, and you’ll have to let us know if you agree with these reasons or not:

• First, we love sparkling wine, and we feel like we should do more sparkling wine, and we want to explore sparkling wines from lots of different places, but we have never had British sparkling wine before, and we really want to try it. So there. 
• Second, British sparkling wine is getting more and more attention and a better and better reputation, so we think it will be interesting to you out there in listening land, especially since many people are still surprised they even make wine in England. 
• Third, although our goal is to find great, affordable wines that also expand well beyond the typical Cabernet, Merlot, and Chardonnay, we sometimes have a hard time doing that if we don’t go past our $25 limit occasionally, especially with prices continuing to rise with inflation and tariffs and all that shit. So, while we don’t want to blow way past the cap if we don’t have to, we will do it every once in a while for good reasons, and it is impossible to find a good British bubbly for $25 or under. 

Now, before we get too far into the history and background of British bubbly and the wine we are tasting and reviewing today, I wanted to take just a moment to talk about just how much wine and sparkling wine are they making in England, exactly, because you want to know if it’s really a thing or if it is just a passing fancy. 

It turns out that English sparkling wine sales have experienced a boom. Domestic English sales rose 187% between 2018 and 2023 to reach 6.2 million bottles produced annually, and in 2023 domestic English wine sales hit 8.8 million bottles, and, it should be noted, the Brits like their bubbly.  Additionally, and this may be surprising, there are over 1,000 registered vineyards spanning more than 10,000 acres of land in England. A record-breaking 2023 harvest resulted in an estimated 20 to 22 million bottles being produced, and the industry expects annual output to hit 40 million bottles by 2040.

So, that may be surprising to hear!

In terms of its reach, English sparkling still remains mostly a product sold and consumed in England, and so it's still a minor player on the world stage. Exports account for only around 8-9% of total sales, although that has doubled since 2021, and while the United States is a top-three market for British Bubbly, Norway is actually the leading export market by volume, followed by Japan. Despite the growth, in terms of scale, England still isn't close to the major sparkling wine regions. For example, England's 6.2 million bottles sold compares to roughly 190 million for Cava, 266 million for Champagne, and 667 million for Prosecco, meaning English sparkling represents a tiny fraction of global sparkling wine volume despite its fast growth.

So, look, here’s the deal. English bubbly is a real thing, and people in the know are starting to look for it and enjoy it. In fact, just look at our show notes to see the long list of articles that have been written on the subject, and we are just scratching the surface in this podcast! So, in a minute we’ll learn a bit more about the history of British sparkling wine, and then we have this highly rated British bubbly to taste and review, it is actually a vintage sparkling wine from the winery Henners, and I can’t wait to try it . . .
But first . . . we have to do our shameless plug.

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and know that we buy all of the wine we taste and review every week so that we can give you real and honest reviews. If you like what you’re hearing, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a five star rating and review so we can grow listeners.

We also love to hear from you and we always respond so you can follow us on Instagram and Bluesky and TikTok at thewinepairpodcast. You can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and you can also send us a note at joe@thewinepairpodcast.com and let us know about wines your want us to review or just shoot the breeze, we love chatting it up.

And, as we do every week, we’ll tell you someone we think you should recommend The Wine Pair Podcast to - because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us - and this week, we want you to recommend us to anyone who loves sparkling wine and does not know that they make wine in England, or anyone who really wants to try it but isn’t sure if they should shell out the money because we will help them make that decision.


Topic: WTF is British Sparkling Wine? 09:00

Ok, Carmela, let’s find out just what the eff those crazy Brits are doing making sparkling wine, shall we?

First, of all, winemaking in England is not new, and this may also surprise people. Before the Romans arrived, the Celtic tribes of Britain primarily brewed beer, which is not a surprise, but archaeological digs in southern England have uncovered things like wine amphorae in the tombs of 1st-century BC Chieftains, proving that wine was a prized beverage even in the good old days.  

The official introduction of viticulture in England came with the Roman invasion in 43 AD. The Romans brought their favorite wines from the continent, and, because even then importing was expensive, they also began planting vineyards. Recent excavations have uncovered Roman-era vineyards in Northamptonshire and an area near Cambridge. 

Roman winemaking in Britain involved crushing grapes by foot, fermenting the juice in open terracotta pots lined with beeswax and buried in the ground, and sealing them with clay or resin. To suit local tastes, the resulting wine was frequently mixed with honey, water, or spices, so it was a different drink than today. They probably did that to hide the taste of toes, but I joke.

After the Norman Conquest of 1066, winemaking actually grew quite a bit. The Normans, being basically French, loved wine, and they cataloged existing and newly planted vineyards in the Domesday Book in 1086 which was basically a census ordered by William the Conquerer, probably to figure out just what he had won!  The census recorded between 42 and 46 vineyards across southern England. 

During the Middle Ages, Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries grew grapes and produced wine for both Mass and general consumption. I mean, how many times do we have to say it, but if you want to find the booze, look for the monks! However, several things happened to really impact negatively the production of wine in England during the Middle Ages. 

First,  Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was French, got married to King Henry II of England in 1152 and suddenly the English market was flooded with superior, cheaper French wine.
There was also what they call the "Little Ice Age" in the late Middle Ages which forced landowners to abandon vineyards and prioritize food crops.
And, the Black Death in the 1340s decimated the labor force, and King Henry VIII’s subsequent dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century permanently dismantled monastic winemaking.

So, they lost a lot of winemaking after the Middle Ages, but the Brits were not out of the game. We bet you did know that the British helped to invent sparkling wine! On December 17, 1662, Dr. Christopher Merrett wrote a paper describing how British wine coopers or barrel makers added sugar and molasses to imported still wines to make them "drink brisk and sparkling.” This document was written decades before the monk Dom Pérignon ever documented similar techniques in Champagne.

This method of making sparkling wine was made possible by another English innovation: heavy-duty glass bottles, which were patented by Sir Kenelm Digby in the 1630s, and were strong enough to withstand the immense pressure of secondary fermentation, which is central to classic sparkling wine making, without exploding.

So, although there were some people still making wines in England in the 1700s, by the 1800s, English winemaking was nearly dead, with only 8 active vineyards were recorded in the country. As a result, English wine became a bit of a joke. The satirical magazine Punch famously said that drinking British wine required four people: one victim to drink, two to hold him down, and one to pour it down his throat. During the World Wars of the 20th century, viticulture practically ceased completely as all agricultural land was repurposed for essential crops.

The modern revival of English wine officially began in 1952, when Major-General Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones planted the first commercial modern vineyard at Hambledon in Hampshire. Throughout the 1950s to the 1980s, English vintners relied heavily on German cross-breeds and hybrids grapes bred for cold climates, such as Müller-Thurgau and Seyval Blanc, which we are finding in states in the US that are cooler climate. While these grapes can survive the damp, cool climate of England, they generally produced highly acidic, thin still white wines in England.

The ultimate turning point occurred in 1988, when an American couple, Stuart and Sandy Moss, bought the Nyetimber estate in West Sussex. Defying warnings that premium grape wine varieties would rot before they ripened in the British climate, they planted the classic Champagne trio: Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier.

Their gamble succeeded. Nyetimber’s inaugural 1992 Blanc de Blancs was released in 1997 to international astonishment, earning top gold medals and blind-tasting trophies against established French Champagne houses. Vintners realized that southern England's chalky and limestone soils, which are geologically contiguous with the land that runs through Champagne, were perfectly suited for sparkling wine.

And, climate change is only going to help. Over the last several decades, average growing-season temperatures in southern England have risen from 13°C to approximately 14.5°C or from 55 to 58 degrees Fahrenheit, mirroring the climate of the Champagne region from fifty years ago.

Today, prestigious French Champagne houses like Taittinger and Pommery have bought up land in Kent and Hampshire to produce their own English sparkling wines.

And, in fact, there are a lot of similarities between the Champagne region and where they are making sparkling wine in England, or at least the way the climate used to be in Champagne. As we mentioned, there's a chalk ridge that runs under Sussex, Kent, and Hampshire, dips under the Channel, and that's literally what the White Cliffs of Dover are made of, and then it resurfaces in northern France under Champagne is built on. The chalk isn't identical, but structurally, it's the same formation.

Climate is the other half of this. England sits about two degrees of latitude north of Champagne, so historically it's just been too cold to reliably ripen Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier there. But, as we mentioned, the average growing-season temperatures in southern England have climbed, and now it’s close to what Champagne's growing season looked like back in the 1960s. So we may be tasting wine that seems closer to what Champagne tasted like then.

But that’s enough information. I think it’s time to learn a little more about the specific wine we are drinking today. Whaddya say?

British Sparkling Wine We Chose for This Episode 19:35

As we mentioned, usually the wines we cover in our episodes are under $25, but this week we are doing a wine that is about twice that much, and most of the time, you are going to find British sparkling wine to be in that range or higher if you are in the United States. You will likely not find British sparkling wine anywhere other than a high-end grocery store or a wine shop with a good, wide selection. In our case, as we mentioned, we bought this wine at an online wine shop that specializes in off-the-beaten path wines like these called Garagiste, and it just happens to be in the Seattle area. And, as always, go to your local wine shop, and they will do what they can to find some for you.

The wine we are drinking is the Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend, and it is 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir. This wine has gotten some good reviews, including a 96 from Wine Enthusiast and a 90 from Vinous. This wine is made in the traditional Champagne method.

They make a variety of sparkling wines, so this is a very specific wine, a vintage sparkling which, if you know about high-end sparkling wines usually only happens during an outstanding year, which 2018 was supposed to be. They say the wine is vegetarian and vegan, and that the vintage wines spend 4 years on the lees before being released. This is typical of sparkling wine, and remember the lees are the spent yeast and other stuff from the winemaking process, which is why sparkling wines made in the Champagne method smell yeasty quite often.

A bit about the winery. They are just 4 miles from the sea in East Sussex and they have a 7 acre vineyard, created in 2007 by ex-Formula One engineer Lawrence Warr. The winery was named in honour of Larry's French ancestor, Henners Dubois, who was forced to flee Paris for England during the French Revolution in the late 18th Century.

Henners is a founding member of Sustainable Wines of Great Britain and their goal is to focus on sustainable practices in England and Wales. (SWGB), an initiative established in 2020 with an aim to ensure sustainability is at the heart of the English and Welsh wine industry. They work on minimizing the water they use per bottle, are focused on biodiversity in the vineyard, and work to protect the soil.

But, I think that is enough information - let’s get to drinking! We’ll take a quick break and be right back. And, if you have these wines or similar wines, drink along with us to get some participation points, which you can trade-in for free stickers. You just need to send me an email with your mailing address, and I will get those “I drink with The Wine Pair Podcast” stickers over to you!

LINKS TO SOURCES FOR THESE SPECIFIC WINES
https://boutinot.com/wines/henners-vintage-2/pdf/


Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend Wine Tasting, Pairing, and Review 23:03

Wine: Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend
Region: England, East Sussex
Vintage: 2018
Price: $43.71
Retailer: Garagiste
Alcohol: 12%
Grapes: 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir
Professional Rating: WE 96, V 90 Vivino

What we tasted and smelled in this Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend: 

• Color: Buttery yellow, looks rich, nice bubbles
• On the nose: Yeasty, a sweet pastry, honey glazed bread or brioche, vanilla, pineapple, green apple, lemon, Lemonhead candy, lemonsquare with a shortbread crust, 
• In the mouth: Lemon, green apple, tropical fruit, great mouthfeel, great mousse, very smooth, fine bubbles, lemon croissant

Food to pair with this Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend: Fish and chips, french fries, spicy foods, sushi, spicy foods, teriyaki, lobster bisque, spaghetti con vongole, pesto, lasagna with bechamel, great cocktail wine, great with appetizers, puffed pastry appetizers, stinky cheese
 
As a reminder on our rating scale, we rate on a scale of 1-10, with no half points, where 7 and above means that we would buy it, and 4 and below means that we are likely to pour it down the sink, and a 5 or 6 means we are likely to drink it and finish it, but we are probably not going to buy it. 

Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend Wine Rating: 

• Joe: 8/10
• Carmela: 8/10

The Test: Did we nail the taste profiles expected from British Sparkling wine?  32:14

• General 
  • Often described as crisp, vibrant, and even electric in their acidity. 
  • flavors include green apple / Granny Smith, lemon, lime zest, grapefruit, and occasional hints of white peach or pear
  • complex secondary aromas of toasted brioche, pastry, almond, and buttery shortbread
  • fine, persistent, and creamy mousse and a clean, mineral-driven finish
• Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend
  • Winery: Deliciously biscuity, creamy, honey aromas with beautifully poised acidity and a hint of salinity.
  • WE: opulent honeyed toast, fresh hazelnut (or “cobnut” as the Brits say), butterscotch and lemon brioche aromas. A crystalline line of acidity and fine mousse cuts through the richness. There's lovely concentration and length, those honeyed, creamy notes lingering.

What is our verdict on British Bubbly? 33:39
We are into it, and we will be drinking more. It’s a great backstory. Don’t sleep on British bubbly, A great wine.

And now it is time to head over to our news desk so that we can cover our wine in the news this week segment.

Wine in the news this week: Starting an English Sparkling Wine Vineyard 34:28

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VT8aVouw29U

In sticking with the theme of the episode, this wine in the news this week story comes from an interview on YouTube from a company called Netwealth that they just posted with Wendy Outhwaite, who co-founded an English sparkling winery in West Sussex called Ambriel

Before Ambriel existed, Wendy and Charles were given a bottle of English sparkling back when England’s reputation for wine was not very good. They decided to put it at the back of the cellar in their house in Fulham, with the idea that they would never open it.

Then, something happened that changed their life - their house was robbed. But it wasn’t robbery that changed it, it was that bottle of wine they left behind. After the robbery, Charles went down to the cellar, found the bottle, and figured the day could not get much worse, so they opened it and thought the wine was amazing.

That bottle ended up changing the direction of their lives. They eventually left their careers and spent about five years searching the English coast for the right place to grow grapes. They finally settled on a site in West Sussex with greensand soils and planted Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier.

And then, after starting this new endeavor, they discovered that starting a vineyard also means figuring out how to keep out pests. One of their problems is wasps. Wendy explains that early in the season the wasps are mostly looking for protein to feed their larvae, so they leave the grapes alone. Later in the season, though, the adults start looking for sugar, which happens to be right when the grapes are ripening. Her solution is to put cups of sugar water mixed with apple cider vinegar at the ends of the rows to lure the wasps away from the fruit. Which apparently works pretty well.

Except they also have a badger. The badger likes one particular row of low-hanging Pinot Noir, and it has also figured out what is in those cups. So now it drinks the sugar water before the wasps can get to it.

They also tried using geese to keep the weeds down between the vines. That experiment went even worse. Instead of sticking to the weeds, the geese went after the vines, the tractors, visitors, and even the trucks delivering empty bottles. So the geese did not last very long.

Wendy says that at Ambriel they have been relatively fortunate when it comes to serious vineyard disease problems, with mildew and botrytis being the main issues they deal with. But apparently the wasps and the badger show up every year.

So Carmela, after hearing all of that, what sounds harder to you: making English sparkling wine, or keeping the local wildlife from drinking it before you do?


Listener Shoutouts 38:00

• Very sweet note from Clarice: Thanks for the schiava episode!  As I mentioned, it is a summer favorite of mine and I'm glad to have some new vineyards to try.   Another recent favorite is Carmenere - so I went back and sure enough, you had reviewed that one a while back.  So glad I listened to it and found out about Julien ;-). Anyway, thanks again for your hard work and hi to Carmella and the pup (my grandmother's name was Mabel so I'm a fan :-)
• Jared: really wants us to do a boxed wine episode which we asked about in our latest newsletter. He said he really likes Bedrock's rosé
• Ashley: thinks we should have Mabel be a piggy ear taste tester. Her own podcast?

Wines coming up in future episodes in case you want to drink along with us 39:16

• Gamay - Beaujolais, Morgon: 2023 Domaine Gaget Cote du Py Morgon, 2024 Domaine Yohan Lardy Moulin-a-Vent Cru Beaujolais Les Michelons
• Decoy wines: 2023 Decoy California Cabernet Sauvignon, 2025 Decoy Sauvignon Blanc
• Loire Crémant: Gratien Meyer Cremant de Loire Brut, Langlois Cremant de Loire Brut Rose
• Sylvaner: Domaine Mann Mouton Bleu Sylvaner 2022, Hans Wirsching Iphofer Silvaner 2023
• Valdiguie: Cruse Wine Co. Rancho Chimiles Vineyard Valdiguie 2023, Optik French Camp Valdiguie 2022

Outro and how to find The Wine Pair Podcast 39:40

Thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show, and remember, we buy all of our own wine and we do all of the writing and recording and editing to bring you a show every week because we absolutely love doing it, and our small little ask for you is that you please follow or subscribe to our podcast and also please leave us a nice rating and review  to help us grow our listeners - and a huge thank you to all of you who have done so already! 

You can also follow us on Instagram and Bluesky and TikTok at thewinepairpodcast. You can contact us on our website thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there and you can also visit our “Shop Wine” section where you can find links to buy the wines that we rate as buys in each episode.  I will also note that on our website, if you are curious about a wine we have covered in the past, we do have a pretty good search functionality, so you can use that find wines you want to know more about. 

And we want to make content you care about and you like, so send us a note or DM us and give us some feedback or let us know if there are wines you want us to try or wine making areas of the world you are curious about - and we’ll take care of it! joe@thewinepairpodcast.com 

Alright, with that, we are going to sign off, so thanks again, and we will see you next time. And, as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine.

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FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q. Is English sparkling wine actually as good as Champagne?
A. It's a genuine debate, not a settled fact. Nyetimber's 1992 Blanc de Blancs won gold at the International Wine and Spirit Competition and the Best English Wine trophy. Henners' 2018 vintage separately earned a 96 from Wine Enthusiast and an 8/10 from both hosts. Neither is a head-to-head win over Champagne.

Q. Did England actually make sparkling wine before Champagne?
A. In 1662, English wine coopers were documented adding sugar to imported still wines to make them "brisk and sparkling," a technique recorded decades before Dom Pérignon documented similar methods in Champagne. That's different from growing English grapes into sparkling wine, which didn't take off until centuries later.

Q. How big is the English sparkling wine industry?
A. In 2023, the category had grown fast but remained a small slice of the wider wine market. English and Welsh sparkling wine sales rose 187% from 2018 to 2023, reaching 6.2 million bottles, and the UK had 1,000-plus vineyards. Great Britain's 2023 grape harvest, across all wine styles, was a record 20-22 million bottles.

Q. What does English sparkling wine taste like?
A. Based on the Henners 2018 vintage, traditional-method English sparkling wine shows bright citrus and green apple fruit with a yeasty, brioche-like character from aging on the lees, plus honeyed pastry, vanilla, and pineapple notes, fine persistent bubbles, and a smooth, creamy mouthfeel.

Q. What food pairs with English sparkling wine?
A. English sparkling wine's bright acidity and fine bubbles make it more food-versatile than most people expect: fish and chips, sushi, teriyaki, lobster bisque, spaghetti with clams, pesto, lasagna with bechamel, stronger cheeses, and puffed pastry appetizers all work well, based on the Henners 2018 vintage's citrus-and-brioche profile.

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RESEARCH ARTICLES AND LINKS FOR THIS EPISODE

• https://www.wsetglobal.com/knowledge-centre/blog/2025/the-rise-of-english-sparkling-wine
• https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20240918-the-english-wine-thats-rivalling-champagne
• https://iandagatawine.com/2025/10/24/the-rise-of-english-sparkling-wine-a-new-chapter-in-cool-climate-excellence/
• https://vinepair.com/articles/wine-101-english-sparkling-wine/
• https://www.guildsomm.com/public_content/features/articles/b/courtney-schiessl/posts/examining-english-sparkling-wine
• https://thewinecaverns.co.uk/blogs/news/the-renaissance-of-english-sparkling-wine?srsltid=AfmBOoo4_2lxLLbMmDsLW3A2w6hAvaI3kgLhC1pT_5t8oYlZLaLPRR3A 
• https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/an-upside-to-climate-change-the-sparkling-wines-of-southern-england/2016/12/09/1eee6a4a-bcad-11e6-94ac-3d324840106c_story.html
• https://natlawreview.com/press-releases/english-sparkling-wine-surges-popularity-drinkers-look-beyond-champagne
• https://worldoffinewine.com/tasting-notes/best-english-wine
• https://punchdrink.com/articles/everything-you-need-to-know-english-sparkling-wine-chapel-down-nyetimber/
• https://daily.sevenfifty.com/why-you-should-start-paying-attention-to-english-sparkling-wine/
• https://englishwine.com/the-complete-story-of-sparkling-wine-production/
• https://www.smartshanghai.com/articles/eat-and-drink/wine
• https://glassofbubbly.com/a-brief-history-of-english-sparkling-wine/
• https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/english-sparkling-wines-challenge-supremacy-champagne-francethanks-climate-change-180974057/
• https://www.gov.uk/government/news/english-sparkling-wine-makers-raise-a-glass-to-new-opportunities
• https://www.vinvm.co.uk/journal/english-sparkling-wine?srsltid=AfmBOopqPq_x6AbekoU6Ggn0s5d1OzgqDddW508htn_y5dfhZSw_Zrff
• https://www.charlesrussellspeechlys.com/en/insights/expert-insights/corporate/2025/sparkling-opportunities-unveiling-the-growth-and-tips-for-investment-into-the-english-sparkling-wine-industry/
• https://www.jmfinn.com/our-thinking/home-grown-rise-english-sparkling-wine/
• https://sixatmospheres.substack.com/p/english-reserve
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRXXYVdcdoA
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Si6rca37Y
• https://winegb.co.uk/2025/10/20/english-sparkling-wine-beats-champagne-in-us-blind-tasting-in-us/ 
• https://www.wineanorak.com/wineblog/champagne/so-just-how-good-is-english-sparkling-wine-a-blind-tasting 
• https://www.greatbritishwine.com/articles/english-sparkling-vs-champagne-blind-tasting/ 
• https://theenglishvine.co.uk/blogs/articles/english-sparkling-vs-champagne-results 
• https://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2006/07/medieval-warmth-and-english-wine/ 
• https://coriniummuseum.org/2022/06/in-vino-veritas-the-roman-roots-of-our-english-wine-industry/ 
• https://www.ucdavis.edu/news/dna-fingerprinting-reveals-surprise-wine-grape-family-tree 

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FULL TRANSCRIPT

Joe: 00:01
Carmela, did you know they make sparkling wine in England? They do? I know. You'd be surprised that they actually make wine in England because what was your question about it?

Carmela: 00:09
Well, I just wondered if they really have the right climate.

Joe: 00:12
Well, ladies and gentlemen, here's a few things that are true. First, climate change is real. Sorry. What? And two, the British make some damn good bubbly, and today we're gonna expose you to it all. Expose? Mm-hmm. We're gonna talk about bubble baths and all sorts of stuff. Hello! Just listen in. Hello, fellow wine buffs, and welcome to the wine pair podcast. I'm Joe, you're Samolier of a reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and my wine pairing partner in Crime Carmela.

Carmela: 00:44
Hi there.

Joe: 00:45
And we are the wine pair. Hooray! And also joined by Mabel, so we may be the wine triplet. I don't know. Okay. If you're new Mabel's our dog, by the way.

Carmela: 00:54
We have to interview her first.

Joe: 00:55
That's right. If you're new to our podcast, here's what we do. Every week we buy wines. Most of the weeks we buy wines under $25 with our own money. We taste them and give you our brutally honest opinion on whether they're worth buying. Nobody pays us to review specific wines, and we don't accept free bottles from wineries. And we're also not afraid to call out a bad wine when we taste one. Decanter magazine calls us fun, irreverent, chatty, and entertaining. So if that sounds like your vibe, welcome to our tribe of wine lovers or wine buffs, I guess.

Carmela: 01:23
Right.

Joe: 01:24
Carmella, this week we're gonna do several things that we have never done before.

Carmela: 01:28
Oh my gosh.

Joe: 01:30
What could we be possibly doing? I don't know, but it's really exciting. And we are completely breaking what has been a the basic approach of our podcast since day one.

Carmela: 01:40
And guess what? What I just learned about this like moments ago, guys.

Joe: 01:44
Oh, well, that's you that's one of the things we're breaking. But the main thing that we're breaking more new news over. Yes, is that we're usually about finding great wines under $25, but not today. So first let me tell you about how we're breaking all of our rules, and then I'm gonna tell you why. Okay, ready for that?

Carmela: 02:03
I'm just dying to know.

Joe: 02:05
Because sometimes you need to know the what, and then you need to know the why. Um okay, so here are the rules we are breaking. As already mentioned, we are choosing a wine that is not under $25. And this wine on the website Garagiste, where we bought it, and which offers wines each day at a discount, we bought it for just over $43. I know. That's why we're only doing one. The second rule we are breaking is again, we're only going to taste and review one bottle of wine rather than two. So that's that's another one. And third, this wine is not gonna be super easy to find, which is also one of our criteria. Because what good is a wine that we rate and review as a buy that's so niche you can't find it, right?

Carmela: 02:42
No, it's so true. What's going on?

Joe: 02:44
I don't know. But you know, getting this bottle online is possible. It's not easy, but it's possible.

Carmela: 02:50
Are you for the people still?

Joe: 02:51
I'm still for the people. I'm that's why I'm doing this because I think the people need to know about British bubbly.

Carmela: 02:56
Oh, I was excited about this too. Pricey, huh?

Joe: 03:00
Yeah, pricey. So far, pricey, because we'll talk about why. They don't make a ton, but we'll talk about why. So those are the rules we're breaking. And so now you may ask, why are we doing this?

Carmela: 03:09
Why, Joe?

Joe: 03:10
Well, there are a few really solid reasons, and you out there in listening land, you'll have to let us know if you agree with these reasons or not or think we should do it again. So, first, we love sparkling wine, and we feel like we should do more sparkling wine, and we want to explore sparkling wines from lots of different places, but we have never had British sparkling wine before.

Carmela: 03:29
Nope, never.

Joe: 03:30
And we really want to try it. Even when we've been to England, we haven't had it.

Carmela: 03:33
What is wrong with that? What is wrong with us? So that's we've had Publey in England, I feel like.

Joe: 03:38
Probably, but I don't think it was British.

Carmela: 03:40
Oh.

Joe: 03:40
Well, so there's one. Second, British sparkling wine is getting more and more attention and a better and better reputation. So we think it'll be interesting for you out there in listening land, especially since many people are still surprised that they even make wine in England.

Carmela: 03:54
Oh, right?

Joe: 03:54
Isn't that kind of surprising?

Carmela: 03:56
I mean a little bit.

Joe: 03:57
Okay. And then third, although our goal is to find great affordable wines that also expand well beyond the typical like Cabernet, Merlot, and Chardonnay, we sometimes have a hard time doing that if we don't go past our $25 limit occasionally. Sure. Especially with prices continuing to rise with inflation and tariffs and all that shit. So while we don't want to blow way past the cap if we don't have to, we'll do it every once in a while for good reasons. And it is basically impossible to find a good British bubbly for $25 or under.

Carmela: 04:27
Did you know that before you decided to do this?

Joe: 04:30
I I had a suspicion. But they're just, it's not super easy to find them when you do find it, it ain't cheap.

Carmela: 04:35
Right. Well, this will be a if we like it, it'll be a for a special occasion.

Joe: 04:40
Exactly, exactly. Nothing wrong with that. No. Now, before we get too into the history and the background of British bubbly and and the wines we're going to be tasting and reviewing today, I just want to take a moment to talk about just how much wine and sparkling wine they're making in England because you want to know if it's really a thing or if it's just, as the British would call it, a passing fancy. Oh I don't know if they actually said really. It sounds like something the British.

Carmela: 05:02
I kind of love that though.

Joe: 05:04
No, it turns out that English sparkling wine sales have experienced a boom, Carmela. Whoa. Domestic English sales rose 187% between 2018 and 2023 to reach 6.2 million bottles produced every year. And in 2023, domestic English wine sales hit 8.8 million bottles. And it should be noted, the Brits do like their bubbly, just in case you were wondering. Additionally, and this may be surprising, Carmela, there are over a thousand registered vineyards spanning more than 10,000 acres of land in England.

Carmela: 05:36
Can you believe that? That's incredible. I know they're not joking around.

Joe: 05:40
No, and in 2023 there was a record-breaking harvest, and there were 20 to 22 million bottles produced, and the industry expects annual output to hit 40 million bottles by 2040. Wow. Yeah.

Carmela: 05:52
So they are in the game.

Joe: 05:53
They're they are in the game.

Carmela: 05:55
And they're not just making a few bottles.

Joe: 05:56
No, exactly.

Carmela: 05:57
Wow.

Joe: 05:58
Now, English sparkling still remains mostly a product sold and consumed in England, and so it's still a minor player on the world stage, and it exports only account for about 8 to 9% of total sales. Despite the growth in terms of scale, England still isn't close to the major sparkling wine regions. For example, England's 6.2 million bottles sold compares to roughly 190 million for kava, 266 million for champagne, and 667 million for per second.

Carmela: 06:27
Oh my god.

Joe: 06:28
So it's still just a fraction. Right. But it's growing. So look, Carmel.

Carmela: 06:31
We'll start somewhere. That's exactly right.

Joe: 06:33
It's like a little dog, like we have here.

Carmela: 06:35
Oh my god.

Joe: 06:35
And if you hear some clicking and clacking in the background, it's her enrichment toy for feeding.

Carmela: 06:40
Do you know about enrichment toys for dogs too?

Joe: 06:43
Tell us, tell us about it.

Carmela: 06:44
We have so many enrichment toys.

Joe: 06:46
And she's still dumb as opposed to smart. She's very smart because she's so enriched. Okay, Carmella, look, here's the deal: English bubbly is a real thing. And people in the know, the cool kids, are starting to look for it and enjoy it. And in fact, just look at our show notes to see the long list of articles that have been written on the subject. And we're just scratching the surface. So in a minute, we'll learn a bit more. Speaking of scratching. Yeah, there's a lot of scratching on the surface going on here. So in a minute, we're gonna learn a little bit more about the history of British sparkling wine. And then we have this highly rated British bubbly to taste and review that's actually a vintage sparkling wine from Henner. So if you know anything about sparkling wine, vintage is kind of a big deal. And I can't wait to try it.

Carmela: 07:26
But first, you gotta do our shameless plug.

Joe: 07:29
That's right. So thank you for listening to us and supporting our show. And we buy all the wine we taste and review every week so we can give you real and honest reviews. And if you like what you're hearing, please subscribe to our podcast and leave us a five-star rating and review so we can grow listeners. And thanks to everybody who's done that. We also love to hear from you and we always respond. So you can follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky and TikTok at the WinePair Podcast. You can contact us on our website, thewinepairpodcast.com. You can sign up for our email newsletter there, which you just missed. But you can always email me at Joe at the WinePair Podcast.com and I will hand deliver it to your email inbox.

Carmela: 08:01
We sure will.

Joe: 08:02
And let us know about wines you want us to try or just shoot the breeze. We don't just reach out so I have somebody to talk. Does your dog have toys that stretch their brains? Right.

Carmela: 08:14
And can your dog do the same puzzles that our dog can do?

Joe: 08:17
I mean, what level are they at? Because I think this might be level three, and she's only five months old.

Carmela: 08:21
Right. So we don't know if that's like slow or if that's like super genius. We want to think it's super genius. Yeah, we do.

Joe: 08:27
Okay, and as we do every week, we'll tell you someone we think you should recommend the wine pair podcast to, because the best way for us to grow listeners is when you tell your family and friends about us. And this week we want you to recommend us to anyone who loves sparkling wine and does not know that they make wine in England, or anyone who really wants to try it but isn't sure if they should shell out the bucks.

Carmela: 08:45
True.

Joe: 08:46
Because we'll help them make that decision today. Right. Even though we're only drinking one, we're gonna let them know there's at least a bar. We're gonna have a benchmark.

Carmela: 08:52
Right, right. And we're gonna keep trying. I mean, hopefully, this is a go-to. Like, hopefully, you know, it's not one and done.

Joe: 08:57
Yeah, although it is a little pricey, so I'm gonna hold you to that. Oh, okay. Carmilla, let's find out just what the f those crazy Brits are doing making sparkling wine, shall we?

Carmela: 09:06
Well, right. I mean, look, I don't think they're crazy, and I think that they should be making sparkling wine. Oh, oh, I like it. I mean, what are we saying here?

Joe: 09:13
I don't know. I don't know what we're saying, but let's do a little history. So, first of all, Carmilla, winemaking in England is not new, and this may surprise people, but before the Romans arrived, the Celtic tribes of Britain primarily brewed beer, which is not a surprise, but archaeological digs in southern England have uncovered things like wine amphorae in the tombs of first century BC chieftains, proving that wine was a prized beverage even in the good old days.

Carmela: 09:39
Whoa.

Joe: 09:40
Now the official introduction of viticulture in England came with the Roman invasion in 43 AD. The Romans brought their favorite wines from the continent, and because even then importing was expensive, even without tariffs, I don't know if they had tariffs, they also began planting vineyards. And recent excavations have uncovered Roman-era vineyards in Northamptonshire and an area near Cambridge. Roman winemaking in Britain involved crushing grapes by foot.

Carmela: 10:06
Oh no. Kind of gross. They're one of those.

Joe: 10:08
Fermenting the juice in open terracotta pots lined with beeswax and buried in the ground, and sealing them with clay or rosin. To suit local taste, the resulting wine was frequently mixed with honey, water, or spices.

Carmela: 10:22
Oh wow, so kind of sweet.

Joe: 10:23
Yeah, so it's a different drink than what we drink today. And they probably did that to hide the taste of the toes.

Carmela: 10:29
Oh, okay. I joke. I joke. Oh, you've caught my attention there. I was kind of drifting for a minute. And then I was like, gross.

Joe: 10:36
You're watching Mabel. Right. Toes brought you right back.

Carmela: 10:39
Right.

Joe: 10:39
Okay. After the Norman conquest of 1066, winemaking actually grew quite a bit in England. The Normans, being basically French, loved wine, and they catalogued existing and newly planted vineyards in the Doomsday book in 1086. Trying to entertain Mabel, which was basically a census ordered by William the Conqueror, probably just to figure out what he had won when he conquered, right?

Carmela: 11:03
What the heck? You know. Everybody conquered something.

Joe: 11:05
Yeah, and then you and then you make a book about it. Like, here's the shit I won. Anyway, the census recorded between uh he did he had an old trophy called England. But the census recorded between 42 and 46 vineyards across southern England. And during the Middle Ages, the Benedictine and Cistercian monasteries grew grapes and produced wine for both mass and general consumption. And how many times do we have to say it? But if you want to find the booze, look for the monks. That's right. However, several things happened to really negatively impact the production of wine in England during the Middle Ages. First, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who was French, got married to King Henry II of England in 1152 and flooded the English market with superior but cheaper French wine. There was also what they called the Little Ice Age in the late Middle Ages, which forced landowners to abandon vineyards and prioritize food crops, which makes sense. And then the good old Black Death in the 1340s decimated the labor force, and King Henry VIII's subsequent dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century permanently dismantled monastic winemaking.

Carmela: 12:09
I mean, with the Black Death, I mean, give them bubbly.

Joe: 12:12
It's true. If you're gonna die, why are you holding back?

Carmela: 12:17
I don't really understand.

Joe: 12:19
I don't know if this is like compassionate nursing or just weirdness, but I like it. Okay.

Carmela: 12:25
Weirdness. Look, if I'm going, I want something Go big. Actually, I want something hard.

Joe: 12:29
Right. I mean, sparkling, that's not enough. You need it by the gallon.

Carmela: 12:34
Yeah.

Joe: 12:34
Okay. So they lost a lot of winemaking after the Middle Ages, but the Brits were not out of the game, Carmella. We bet you didn't know that the British helped to invent sparkling wine. They helped to invent it. Yes. On December 17th. You're so humble. I know. On a very specific day, I don't know why. December 17th, 1662, Dr. Christopher Meditt wrote a paper describing how British wine coopers, that means barrel makers, added sugar and molasses to imported still wines to make them brisk and sparkling.

Carmela: 13:04
Oh, nice.

Joe: 13:04
And this document was written decades before the monk, Don Perignon. I bet you didn't know that Dom Perignon was a monk.

Carmela: 13:10
I don't believe it.

Joe: 13:11
He was a monk. You're making this up. I'm serious. Don Perignon was a monk. You don't chat GPT. I want to know your sources. No, it's true. Anyway, before Dom Perignon even documented similar techniques in champagne. Now the method of making sparkling wine was made possible by another English innovation.

Carmela: 13:28
Oh.

Joe: 13:29
Heavy-duty glass bottles. Not heavy-duty rock and roll, but heavy-duty glass bottles. Maybe a little of both. Yes. I don't know. They were patented by Sir Kenum Digby in the 1630s and were strong enough to withstand the immense pressure of secondary fermentation, which is central to classic sparkling winemaking without exploding, right? You don't want those bottles to explode. They gotta be. Oh my god, after all that's a big thing. They gotta be chonky.

Carmela: 13:52
Jesus. That's that'll be such a mess. And that stuff has sugar in it, so it's gonna be a mess. Wow. And it's gonna be sticky.

Joe: 14:02
You're right.

Carmela: 14:02
I don't want any of that. No winemaking here.

Joe: 14:05
No, we're not doing it. Okay, so although there were still some people making wines in England in the 1700s, by the 1800s, English winemaking was nearly dead, with only eight active vineyards recorded in the country. So as a result, English wine became a bit of a joke. Kind of a punchline.

Carmela: 14:21
I feel kind of bad about that.

Joe: 14:23
Yeah, in fact, the satirical magazine Punch famously said that drinking British wine, or wine made by the British, required four people. One victim to drink it, two to hold him down, and one to pour it down his throat.

Carmela: 14:35
Whoa. That's terrible. That's really too bad.

Joe: 14:38
That's terrible.

Carmela: 14:39
They're making a mockery of wine.

Joe: 14:40
Mockery of British wine, that's right. During the world wars of the 20th century, viticulture practically ceased completely as all agricultural land was repurposed for essential crops, which makes sense. But there was a revival, Carmella. The modern revival of English wine officially began in 1952, when Major General Sir Gui or Guy Salisbury Jones planted the first commercial modern vineyard at Hambledon in Hampshire. Throughout the 50s and the 80s, English vintners relied heavily on German crossbreeds and hybrid grapes bred for cold climates, such as Mule Thuggau and Save all Blanc, which we are finding in states in the US that are a cooler climate. And while these grapes can survive the damp, cool climate of England, they generally produce highly acidic and thin, still white wines in England.

Carmela: 15:37
That wasn't too long ago, guys. Not for us. That was a long time ago.

Joe: 15:42
When an American couple, believe it or not, Stuart.

Carmela: 15:44
Especially if you weren't alive yet.

Joe: 15:46
That's true. That's a long time.

Carmela: 15:48
Holy cow.

Joe: 15:48
Okay, can I go on?

Carmela: 15:49
Yeah.

Joe: 15:50
Okay, and an American couple, Stuart and Sandy Moss, bought the Nytenberg estate in West Sussex and defined warnings that premium grape wine varieties would rot before they ripened in the British climate, they planted the classic champagne, trio, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Munier.

Carmela: 16:07
Wow. Oh wait, but I'm wondering, do they really have the weather to be making the or growing these grapes?

Joe: 16:14
Well, Carmilla, that is the central question and such a good one. And the issue is that not really, but maybe now.

Carmela: 16:22
So right, but back then, even in the 80s.

Joe: 16:25
Yes. I don't know. So here, going back to this uh Stuart and Sandy Moss, their inaugural Blanc de Blanc in 1992, which they they made, was released in 1997 to international astonishment, earning top gold medals and blind tasting trophies against established French champagne houses. And Vintners realized that Southern England's chalky and limestone soils, which are geographically contiguous with the land that runs through Champagne, were perfectly suited for sparkling wine. But to your point, climate change is helping too.

Carmela: 17:00
Oh man.

Joe: 17:01
So over the last several decades, average growing There's climate change. Yeah, it's real. Oh it's not a hoax.

Carmela: 17:07
Are you sure?

Joe: 17:08
Pretty sure. Man. Pretty sure. Okay. Okay, over the last several decades, average growing season temperatures in southern England have risen from 13 degrees Celsius to approximately 14 and a half degrees Celsius, which doesn't seem like a lot, but it's enough to change things. It mirrors the climate of the Champagne region from 50 years ago. Wow. That's how things are changing. So today, prestigious French champagne houses like Tattinger and Pomeray have bought up land in Kent and Hampshire to produce their own English sparkling wines. So now the French want in on it.

Carmela: 17:42
Well, of course they do.

Joe: 17:44
Rude. I don't know if it's rude or not.

Carmela: 17:46
That's what they say sometimes about the French. I don't think so.

Joe: 17:48
I don't think.

Carmela: 17:51
Absolutely. But we we.

Joe: 17:52
Oh, we do not think so.

Carmela: 17:53
Right.

Joe: 17:54
Okay. Carmilla, one more thing. There's a lot of similarities between the Champagne region and where they're making sparkling wine in England, at least the way the climate used to be in Champagne. As we mentioned, there's a chalk ridge that runs under Sussex, Kent, and Hampshire, dips under the English Channel, and it's literally what the white cliffs of Dover are made of. And then it resurfaces in northern France under Champagne. Now the chalk isn't identical, but structurally it is the same formation. It's the same chalk ridge. And then again, climate is the other half. England sits about two degrees of latitude north of Champagne. So, like you were wondering, historically, it's just been too cold to ripen Chardonnay on a regular basis, or Pinot Noir, or even Pinot Munier. But the average growing season temperatures are rising. And so now again, it's close to what Champagne's growing season looked like back in the 1960s. I feel like that should be a sound effect. So, Carmela, today we may be tasting wine. Yeah. That tasted like what champagne used to taste like in the 60s.

Carmela: 19:00
Wow, Joe.

Joe: 19:02
Carmela's on the ground playing with Mabel, and she just like climbed up to get into the microphone. This is the effort that she's putting in today. I hope you guys appreciate this.

Carmela: 19:11
The deal is that, okay, so our very brilliant puppy here took about three minutes to finish her puzzle, and then she has proceeded to take it apart.

Joe: 19:19
Oh no.

Carmela: 19:20
So um this was a gift. So uh we're trying to preserve it in.

Joe: 19:25
Preserve it in case we have to bring it back.

Carmela: 19:26
And that's all she wants is to destroy it now.

Joe: 19:28
Okay, so on that note, we better find out more about the wine that we're drinking today. What do you say? Oh Mabel's like, yes. As we mentioned, usually the wines we cover in our episodes are under $25. But this week we are doing a wine that is about twice that much. And most of the time, you are gonna find British sparkling wine is gonna be in that range or higher, especially if you're in the United States. Again, they don't make a ton, so exporting it's just gonna be expensive. You'll likely not find British sparkling wine anywhere other than a high-end grocery store or high-end wine shop with a good wide wine selection. And in our case, as we mentioned, we bought this wine at an online wine shop that specializes in off-the-beaten path wines like these, and it's called Garagiste, and it just happens to be in the Seattle area. But that's right. That's the whatever, neither here nor there. And as always, go to your local wine shop and they will do whatever they can to find some of this wine for you. Now, the wine we are drinking today is the Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend, and it's 70% Chardonnay and 30% Pinot Noir. So it's classic champagne blended and also made in the champagne method.

Carmela: 20:30
Nice.

Joe: 20:30
So that's kind of cool.

Carmela: 20:31
Yeah.

Joe: 20:32
This wine has gotten some really good reviews, including a 96 from wine enthusiasts.

Carmela: 20:37
Wow.

Joe: 20:37
Yeah, and a 90 from Vinia. So hopefully we're gonna like it. They make a variety of sparkling wines at Henner's. So this is a very specific wine. Again, a vintage sparkling wine, which, again, if you know about high-end sparkling wines, they usually only name a vintage. It's usually non-vintage. So when they put a number on the bottle, like a date on the bottle, that only happens during outstanding years, which 2018 was supposed to be. They say the wine is vegetarian and vegan. The vintage wine spend four years on the lees before being released. Yeah. And this is typical of sparkling wine that rests on the lees. I don't know, about four years. And remember, the lees are the spent yeast and other stuff from the winemaking fermentation process, which is why sparkling wines made in the champagne method often smell yeasty.

Carmela: 21:22
Yeah, I was expecting that actually.

Joe: 21:24
Yeah, it's kind of a classic scent. A bit about the winery. They're just four miles from the sea in East Sussex, and they have a seven-acre vineyard created in 2007 by ex-Formula One engineer Lawrence War. And the winery was named in honor of Larry's French ancestor, Henners Du Bois, who was forced to flee Paris for England during the French Revolution in the 18th century. Henners, by the way, is a founding member of Sustainable Wines of Great Britain, and their goal is to focus on sustainable practices, as you would expect, in England and Wales, and it was an initiative established in 2020. With an aim to ensure sustainability is at the heart of the English and Welsh wine industry. And they work on minimizing the water they use per bottle, are focused on biodiversity in the vineyard, and work to protect the soil. But Carmela, I think that's Mabel. This is a you guys, this is a whole new adventure. Trying to do the podcast with a puppy. Right.

Carmela: 22:24
And this is not her napping hour.

Joe: 22:25
So I mean, I know we make it sound flawless and effortless. Yeah.

Carmela: 22:30
One day we will put this on video and we will see the struggles with this little beast.

Joe: 22:35
There she goes. Mabel says it's time.

Carmela: 22:37
And she's a minor. She can't be drinking. No. She's she doesn't need any.

Joe: 22:42
She'll be an adult soon, though, much sooner than human children. And we're gonna let her drink.

Carmela: 22:46
Pretty much a middle schooler right now. She is. Can you tell?

Joe: 22:49
Yep. But I think that's enough information. I think we should go on to taste this wine and see what we think. What do you say?

Carmela: 22:56
Let's do it.

Joe: 22:57
As Carmela said last week, we need a drink. Yeah. Okay, we're back and Mabel's chomping on a pig ear. And I will say, listener Ashley reached out and she said maybe Mabel should be doing pig ear tastings.

Carmela: 23:13
Oh she would be so into that. I think it's a great idea. Right.

Joe: 23:17
She'll rate them. Which pig ears are the best?

Carmela: 23:20
We can gauge which kind she likes more than others.

Joe: 23:23
I think you're right. Okay, Carmella, let's uh find out more about this wine. This is the Henners 2018 Vintage Sparkling Blend. It's from East Sussex, England. Uh the vintage is 2018, if you hadn't figured that out. $43.71 at Garagiste, 12% alcohol, 70% Chardonnay, 30% Pinot Noir. Wine enthusiasts gave it a 96 again, and Vineus a 90. But let's talk about the bottle really quick.

Carmela: 23:47
Oh, it's nice.

Joe: 23:48
It's very elegant. It's very nice.

Carmela: 23:50
It looks like a special occasion bottle. Yeah, sure. I love the label. A little bit different with the shape of it.

Joe: 23:56
Yeah, it feels kind of British to me. It's got some really nice foliage. Yeah, like it's got nice decoration, but it's reserved. Yeah. It's kind of classy.

Carmela: 24:05
Right, right. I think so. Like I could see this in a high-end restaurant.

Joe: 24:08
Sure. Totally, totally.

unknown: 24:10
Okay.

Carmela: 24:10
It could be about $100 there.

Joe: 24:12
No, it'd probably be about uh usually it's three times. So probably about $120 or more.

Carmela: 24:18
Okay.

Joe: 24:18
Plus, we got this at Garageista, and a lot of times they do things on sale. So it could be $150 or $200. But Carmilla, let's talk about the color first.

Carmela: 24:26
It's pretty dark.

Joe: 24:28
Really?

Carmela: 24:28
I think. I think so. You don't think so?

Joe: 24:31
Um, I mean, I don't know. It's, you know, it I to me it looks like a sparkling wine. Yeah. It does. It does.

Carmela: 24:38
It's buttery looking.

Joe: 24:39
Buttery looking, yellow. It's kind of a maybe a little bit darker than a sunshine yellow.

Carmela: 24:44
Yeah, and looks rich.

Joe: 24:46
Yeah.

Carmela: 24:46
It doesn't look super light.

Joe: 24:47
No, no, you're right. I mean, it's yeah. And it's got nice bubbles, nice tiny pearl bubbles. So very very, very pretty and elegant in the glass. Okay, Carmela, let's smell it. Good yeast.

Carmela: 25:00
Definitely. But kind of sweet, like a like a sweet bread.

Joe: 25:04
Totally.

Carmela: 25:05
Sweet um pastry.

Joe: 25:06
A croissant?

Carmela: 25:08
Yes, yes. There's a little sweetness on it for sure. Even like a glazed, you know, like sometimes you'll see a loaf of bread that has a glaze on it.

Joe: 25:17
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Carmela: 25:18
Like a green glaze on it. It kind of has a little bit of honey to it.

Joe: 25:23
I think you're right.

Carmela: 25:24
Honey brioche vanilla, maybe.

Joe: 25:27
And I do think there's a little vanilla on this. I also am getting, I'm getting um like a little pineapple, maybe.

Carmela: 25:35
Okay, yeah.

Joe: 25:36
And green apple. For sure, green apple. What else? Anything else you're getting?

Carmela: 25:41
Writing things down, sorry.

Joe: 25:43
Yeah, it's okay. It's kind of a it's just classic champagne style sparkling wine smells.

Carmela: 25:48
Yeah, it's nice. I think it's very nice. Citrus. Uh not a ton of citrus to me. Do you are you getting that? For me. Are you getting citrus? Yeah, lemon. I actually feel like it's a like if you're gonna say that, I feel like it's a like a lemon head where the outside has a sugar coating and you're getting not getting the tartness quite as much.

Joe: 26:07
Yeah, you're getting a lot of sugar on it.

Carmela: 26:09
Yeah, I'm almost getting like a lemon square dessert.

Joe: 26:13
Okay, I buy that. A sorbet almost, maybe?

Carmela: 26:16
Oh yeah, yeah. Not as much of a as a bite, not as much acidity or a bite as you might get with with just a lemon.

Joe: 26:24
Okay, well, let's taste it and see what we think. Okay. Ooh. Nice. It's very nice.

Carmela: 26:31
Yeah. I'm getting more of the lemon on it now.

Joe: 26:33
Lemon for sure. And apple, green apple.

Carmela: 26:36
Yep. For sure, green apple.

Joe: 26:38
But I feel like a little bit of tropical fruit in there. Maybe that's the lemon, but a little bit of tropical fruit. It's got a really nice mouthfeel.

Carmela: 26:46
It really does.

Joe: 26:47
They talk about the mousse. You know, the bubbles. Really nice.

Carmela: 26:51
Like very, yeah, no, I mean, just almost uh coating your mouth a little bit. Um, and really it's just smooth.

Joe: 26:58
Yeah.

Carmela: 26:59
You know, just sort of like a light bubble. Yeah. Like a little light bubble bath.

Joe: 27:03
Yeah, no, but and and yes, and like it does it, it like kind of fills the mouth. It's really nice.

Carmela: 27:09
I was gonna say it sort of washes over. You know, when you see some of those like therapeutic baths. I don't know what I'm talking about. Okay. You know what I'm talking about? With like rainwater.

Joe: 27:20
Yes. We're not doing anything.

Carmela: 27:22
I'm just that foamy.

Joe: 27:24
It's how foamy.

Carmela: 27:25
Oh my god. Wow, guys. I just I don't know, I struck a chord in the most positive way.

Joe: 27:31
In the worst way.

Carmela: 27:32
Worst for me.

Joe: 27:33
Yes.

Carmela: 27:33
No, kidding, kidding. But no, but you know, you see that when it just or kind of like oh godness, that's so dumb. Kind of like at the end of the car wash.

Joe: 27:43
Oh, hot. That's hot, the car wash.

Carmela: 27:47
I just snorted.

Joe: 27:48
I know that's sexy too.

Carmela: 27:50
Do you want to talk to you about the and she goes?

Joe: 27:52
Oh, I know what you're talking about.

Carmela: 27:53
I don't know where I now I've gone down such a little bit.

Joe: 27:55
When they put the they're just washing that soap in the way. Oh yeah. This is the best tasting we've ever done.

Carmela: 28:07
Talk about henrens. So like elegant. Now we're talking about the car wash. Yeah. No, but you know what I'm talking about at the very end, and then I totally with you. It's like little bubbles.

Joe: 28:17
And you open and you roll down the window and you open up your mouth and you get it full of such.

Carmela: 28:22
And then you're like, that was a really bad mistake. Like I shouldn't have done that. Okay, anyway, back to the wine. It's very bubbly. In the best way, fine bubbles.

Joe: 28:33
And I do feel it's, you know, in the mouth too, you get that sort of sweet bread. Like almost to me, it's got a little bit of like a croissant with lemon in it.

Carmela: 28:44
Oh.

Joe: 28:44
If there is such a thing.

Carmela: 28:46
Probably. You know what I mean? Probably, yeah. Yeah, no, it is. It's but it's pretty balanced. Like I'm not getting a very like, yes, it's not super bready like you can get sometimes with uh, you know, a sparkling or a champagne, but um, it's just got a very that balanced like a croissant. It's almost like a flaky, like you're saying, croissant.

Joe: 29:05
That's what I said. I know.

Carmela: 29:07
I just had to wrap my head around it for a minute.

Joe: 29:09
But it's it's really nice.

Carmela: 29:11
Still thinking about the car wash. But anyway.

Joe: 29:13
I'm still thinking about the bubble bath. Okay, what food would you pair with this 2018 Henner's vintage sparkling blend?

Carmela: 29:19
Well, it's so funny because I just the only thing I well, not the only thing, the thing I liked the most in like in England and London was the fish and chips.

Joe: 29:30
It's almost the only thing that's that you want to eat there.

Carmela: 29:33
Oh hey, I wasn't gonna go down that road. Okay, okay. But I know I almost said that. But I really like fish and chips. I know that doesn't really seem to be what road we're going down with this wine, but you can have fish and chips with this and be very happy.

Joe: 29:46
Oh, french fries and champagne is a classic.

Carmela: 29:48
Well, sure. Classic. So chips.

Joe: 29:51
Yeah, I but I was thinking like sushi, spicy foods, right, uh ter teriyaki would be awesome.

Carmela: 29:56
Oh my gosh, and like um, like a beautiful lobster bisque would be so good.

Joe: 30:03
Oh, like uh we our old spaghetti con vong galet, like or but also like creamy sauces would be really nice. Pesto.

Carmela: 30:12
Sure, yeah, pesto would be really good with that. Garlic.

Joe: 30:15
You know, sometimes you get the lasagna and it has like bechamel on it. Yeah, really nice. That would be really nice. That would be really nice.

Carmela: 30:20
Yeah, yeah. So no, this would be a this would go with a lot of tasty dishes. Yeah, too. You could definitely do this as a really nice cocktail wine. Um, I mean, but on its own or with like appetizers. Totally. Any type of puff pastry filled dessert or uh appetizers or charcuterie.

Joe: 30:40
Yep.

Carmela: 30:41
Cheeses would be so good. Yeah. Stinky cheese.

Joe: 30:44
But going back to like main meals, the one thing I think that Champagne gets a short shrift on or whatever is that people often think of it that way. It's like celebration. You could have this all through dinner. It's an excellent one.

Carmela: 30:57
Oh my god, absolutely.

Joe: 30:58
Okay, let's rate this wine. It's a reminder on a rating scale. We rate on a scale of one to ten. We don't give half points. Seven and above means we're gonna buy it, four below means we're gonna pour it down the sink. And a five or a six means we'll drink it and we'll finish it. And thanks for serving it, but we're not gonna buy it. So, Carmela, what are you gonna give this Henner's wine?

Carmela: 31:15
I think I have to give it an eight at least. Yeah.

Joe: 31:18
I think it's really good. I'm like, I'm an eight. I'd want to go higher, but I I I don't know I'm ready to go higher. But I I mean, it's solid. I would buy it.

Carmela: 31:26
It's a great bottle of wine and it looks nice. So I think it's I guess the question we should ask ourselves is it worth it?

Joe: 31:33
Well, I was gonna say, even at this price, I would buy it. Like I would give it to what?

Carmela: 31:37
Like would you have it on a Tuesday night or would you save this for this is more of a this is a really nice wine.

Joe: 31:41
So I would this is more of a special occasion.

Carmela: 31:43
It's gonna be your party wine, like we're having 50 people over, even 25.

Joe: 31:46
Unless it was like a really big celebration, yes. True. But it's not a Tuesday night wine.

Carmela: 31:51
Because you gotta you can't just have one bottle.

Joe: 31:53
Yeah.

Carmela: 31:54
I mean, you know, if it's a big party. And sometimes you want to get a good bottle, but you want it to be more reasonably priced.

Joe: 32:01
Yes.

Carmela: 32:01
So this would be, yeah, this would be for a very special event.

Joe: 32:06
But really good.

Carmela: 32:07
Really nice.

Joe: 32:08
Yeah. And I guess we don't need to say which one we're finishing tonight because we only had one, but I do think we're gonna finish it. Woo! And uh let's so let's talk about the taste profiles expected from British sparkling wine. In general, it's often described as crisp, vibrant, even electric in their acidity. I do think this is very vibrant and acidic. Flavors include green apple like Granny Smith, lemon, lime zest, grapefruit, and occasional hints of white peach or pear. Complex secondary aromas of toasted brioche, pastry, almond, and buttery shortbread.

Carmela: 32:39
Okay.

Joe: 32:39
And a fine, persistent, and creamy mousse.

Carmela: 32:42
Oh my.

Joe: 32:43
And clean, mineral-driven finish. I do think it's mineral on the end, like almost sea salty at the end, don't you think? A little salty. The winery says about this wine, deliciously biscuity, creamy honey aromas. Okay. With beautifully poised acidity and a hint of salinity.

Carmela: 33:01
Perfect.

Joe: 33:02
And wine enthusiasts said opulent honeyed toast. You said honey.

unknown: 33:07
I did.

Carmela: 33:09
Uh, I did, and I said short bread. I we said a lot of these things kind of a little more abstract that they came up with them too. So they hit it. Wait, wait, they did a good job.

Joe: 33:18
Wait till you hear this. Fresh hazelnut. We didn't have that butterscotch and lemon brioche aromas.

Carmela: 33:23
Wow.

Joe: 33:23
Come on. A crystalline line of acidity and fine mousse cuts through the richness. This there's lovely concentration and length, those honeyed creamy notes lingering.

Carmela: 33:34
Link see again, the whole lingering. Lingering. Filling your mouth.

Joe: 33:38
I know, it's all about that. So, Carmela, what just like going through the car wash. Carmela, what's our verdict on British bubbly?

Carmela: 33:46
I think we are so into it. Like, I think that we will be drinking more.

Joe: 33:50
Yeah.

Carmela: 33:51
And um, I love the whole backstory that they they had a hand in it, right?

Joe: 33:55
Yeah, a hand in sparkling wine and in the creation of sparkling wine from the get-go.

Carmela: 33:59
Right. So don't sleep on British bubbly.

Joe: 34:01
No, I'm I'm fully in. I'm I really would love to taste more. I was really when I saw this one was for sale on Gar Rai G stay, I was like, we love bubbly, but I was like, I've got to get it because I gotta try it. And it's totally met. I had high expectations, and it met those expectations.

Carmela: 34:17
And we love visiting English in England.

Joe: 34:19
So next time we go, yeah, next time we go, we're gonna have to look for it.

Carmela: 34:23
For sure.

Joe: 34:24
And now it's time to head over to our news desk so that we can cover our wine in the news this week segment. Wine in the news this week. And sticking with the theme of the episode, this wine in the news this week story comes from an interview on YouTube from a company called Net Wealth, of all things, and they just posted with Wendy Elthwaite, who co-founded an English sparkling winery in West Sussex called Umbrielle. Now, before Ombreel existed, Wendy and Charles were given a bottle of English sparkling wine back when England's reputation for wine was not very good. So they put it at the back of their cellar in their house in Fulham with the idea that they would never open it. They were never expecting to open it. They were like, just put it away. Then something happened that changed their life. Their house was robbed. But it wasn't robbery that changed it. It was that bottle of wine that they left behind. Because after the robbery, Charles went down to the cellar, found the bottle, and figured that the day could not get much worse. So they opened the wine just because they were like, this isn't going to be very good. And then they found out that they the wine was amazing. Exactly.

Carmela: 35:35
I love that story.

Joe: 35:36
So that bottle ended up changing the direction of their lives. They eventually left their careers and spent about five years searching the English coast for the right place to grow grapes. And they they finally settled on a site in West Sussex with green sand soils and planted Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Munier. And then, after starting this new endeavor, they discovered that starting a vineyard also means figuring out how to keep out pests.

Carmela: 36:02
Oh.

Joe: 36:03
One of their problems was wasps. Oh. And Wendy explains in the video that early in the season the wasps are mostly looking for protein to feed their larvae, so they leave the grapes alone. But later in the season, the adults start looking for sugar, which happens to be right when the grapes are ripening. So her solution is to put cups of sugar water mixed with apple cider vinegar at the ends of the rows to lure the wasps away from the fruit. Now that apparently works pretty well, except they also have a badger.

Carmela: 36:32
Oh no.

Joe: 36:32
Yes. The badger likes one particular row of low-hanging Pinot Noir, and it's also figured out the low-hanging fruit. It's always the low-hanging fruit. And it's also figured out what's in those cups. So now it drinks the sugar water before the wasps can get to it.

Carmela: 36:48
Okay, that can't be good for blood sugar.

Joe: 36:50
Then they also tried using geese to keep the weeds down between the vines, and that explained. And they just made a mess. Well, that went even worse. So instead of sticking to the weeds, the geese went after the vines, the tractors, visitors, and even trucks.

Carmela: 37:04
Yeah. They are pests.

Joe: 37:05
Yeah, the geese didn't last very long. So Wendy says that at Embryo they have been relatively fortunate when it comes to serious vineyard disease problems, with mildew and boitrytis being the main issues they deal with. But apparently the wafts and the badger show up every year, but not the geese anymore. So Carmela, after hearing that, what sounds harder to you? Making English sparkling wine or keeping the local wildlife from getting at it before you do?

Carmela: 37:30
Oh gosh, I think unfortunately they go kind of hand in hand, right? Like in a negative way.

Joe: 37:36
I think so.

Carmela: 37:37
Because if you could focus on, you know, just growing the vineyard you and not worry about the pests, yeah. You'd be fine.

Joe: 37:44
You'd be fine.

Carmela: 37:45
Yeah.

Joe: 37:45
So I don't have problems. But good on them. A robbery changed their life, but only because they ended up speaking.

Carmela: 37:53
Robbery has to change your life.

Joe: 37:54
Yeah, it is. But only because they ended up drinking English bubbles. Right. There you go. Okay, Carmela, time for a few listener shout-outs. Thank you for reaching out to us. We love it. We love it. We love it. So here's a few shout-outs for you. And by the way, this episode is a little bit out of order, so it'll come out about a week and a half later than we're recording it. So just we're gonna miss some in the in-between time, but don't worry, we'll catch up when you reach out to us. But we got a very sweet note from Clarice. She loved the Schiava episode. She said it's a favorite summer wine of hers. She also has a new recent favorite of Carmener, and she found out that we had actually done an episode on it, of course. And she said thanks again for the hard work. She said hi to you, Carmella. And hello! Yes, and hi to the puppy. And by the way, her grandmother's name was Mabel, so she's a cute. Jared reached out. He really wants us to do a boxed wine episode, which we asked about in our latest newsletter, and he says he really likes bedrock rose. And then Ashley reached out, as we mentioned, and she said, again, we should have Mabel do a piggy ear tasting. So maybe that'll be in a future episode.

Carmela: 39:00
We'll see how well she participates in that. That's right. I mean, in terms of what she's gonna say. What is she what would she say? Um, I'm not really sure. We'd have to, you know, prep her a little bit. Do you think we should give her a script?

Joe: 39:12
I don't think she'll read it. Um I don't think she'll she's not that she's not there yet.

Carmela: 39:16
Okay.

Joe: 39:16
Okay. Wines coming up in future episodes in case you want to drink along with us. And by the way, you can go to our show notes and see the exact wines. You can get links to them if you want to drink along with us. But we're gonna do gamet, we're gonna do decoy wines, we're gonna do Loire Cremant. So some more sparkling is in your future, Carmela. We're gonna do Sylvanor, and we're gonna do, I'm gonna say this wine wrong, Valdigay. I think that's how you say it. But with that, Carmela, we're gonna go. So thank you for listening to us and for supporting our show. And remember, we buy all of our own wine and we do all the writing and recording and editing to bring you a show every week because we love doing it. Our small little ask for you is that you please follow or subscribe to our podcast, and also please leave us a nice rating and review to help us grow our listeners. And a huge thank you to all of you who have done that already. You can also follow us on Instagram and Blue Sky and TikTok at the WinePair Podcast. You can contact us on our website, thewinepairpodcast.com, and you can sign up for our email newsletter there, and you can visit our shop wine section where you can find links to buy the wines that we rate as buys in each episode. And then we always want to make content that you care about and you like, so send us a note or DM us and give us some feedback or let us know if there's wines you want us to try or winemaking areas of the world you're curious about, and we'll take care of it. Just Joe at the winepairpodcast.com, and it'll get to us. We promise. And with that, we're gonna sign off. So thanks again. We'll see you next time. And as we say, life is short, so stop drinking shitty wine. Cheerio!