English Sparkling Wine From Chapel Down

It’s taken some time but finally over the last half decade or so, English wines are finally getting the recognition they deserve after years of hard work and a little help from the greenhouse effect. I quite often get ridiculed for the quality of English wines by my French friends here and my response to them is always the same: “I am British, not English, and even that being so, I love English wines and they are now at a point where they can compete with some of their rivals around the world”.

Take English sparkling wine for example. The product has had a bumper year with the London 2012 Olympics and the Royal wedding of William and Kate. The use of English wines at opening ceremonies and wedding receptions has firmly put the product on the wine map and it is finally being seen as, in the case of English sparking, a real competitor to their close neigbours, Champagne.

One such winery making quality sparkling wines and now available in Hong Kong is Chapel Down. Located in the idyllic south of England in Kent which is known as “The Garden Of England”, Chapel Down is situated approximately 100 miles from the region of Champagne and has very similar soil types and topography, this coupled with the obviously warming climate over the last few decades allows for the conditions that make grape growing possible and thus, the ability to make wines of substantial quality – certainly as compared to, say, 20 years ago.

Chapel Down wines are highly awarded wines and, although not a protagonist of awards, certain ratings and assessing the quality of a wine by numerical value, it has to be said that the professionals who give the wines high scores and gold medals do so because they are the best in the business at what they do and this, I think, does count for a lot. Although this is not a personal endorsement by the a specific celebrity on a tasting panel, it is a recognition of the high quality of the product being tasted.

Thus, for Chapel Down to be entered into last year’s Cathay Pacific Hong Kong International Wine and Spirits Competition and to come out with a medal for every sparkling wine is something that should not be ignored. This is a highly commendable achievement considering the tasting panel (and I know who most of them are) are highly experienced wine connoisseurs and also have had, and do have, access to some of the best sparkling wines and Champagnes around the world on a daily basis.

The medal haul is as follows: Chapel Down Brut NV won silver, as did the Chapel Down Pinot Reserve 2006 and the Chapel Down Blanc de Blancs 2007. The Chapel Down Rosé Brut won a bronze medal to top off a very successful time in Hong Kong last year. 

Always one to want to try new and intriguing wines (and as my new year’s resolution stated) I decided to give the wines a try myself yesterday and sipped my way through all four of the aforementioned sparklings and was, in all honesty, highly impressed with not only the quality of the wines, but also their value for money when compared with sparkling wines made by their French counterparts.

Champagne it is not (and, obviously, never will be) but what is for certain is that there is more intrigue and excitement in a bottle of Chapel Down Blanc de Blancs 2007 than there is, or ever will be for that matter, in a bottle of mundane, mass-produced, non vintage blend of average quality fruit that’s found in wines such as Verve Clicquot.

All the wines show great fruit and a clean a crisp finish with good mousse and are not overly effervescent. The Blanc de Blancs 2007, the first vintage made of this wine, is exceptional and has great acidity and the palate reminds me of the “taste of summer” that harks back to holidays in my grandmother’s garden in Henley-On-Thames and, strangely, reminds me of the taste of the classic British fruit Rhubarb. 

The Pinot Reserve 2006 is elegant and refined and is one that would suit any wine dinner or sophisticated gathering. It’s made in a very classic style and has the bready, brioche notes that one expects from a fine vintage sparkling. The non-vintage Brut is truly an accessible wine, one for everyday drinking, aperitif before dinner or just one to savour as you kick back on a warm evening to watch the sun go down.

Finally, the Rosé, which is very fruity and has good sweetness, is what I would call a “garden party” sparkling wine. It’s one to sit around all afternoon in the sun with whilst conversing with friends and slowing eating berry fruit such as raspberries and strawberries (which I personally thought would make a perfect match).

In all, I was very impressed with the wines and the prices (they will cost you about 25% less than a bottle of average quality Champagne), and as I said earlier, will give you so much more pleasure out of the bottle. So, in closing, next time you are thinking of doing some entertaining of an afternoon and you want your friends to remember what they drunk (for all the right reasons), then go for a case or two of English sparkling wine from Chapel Down, I truly believe you will not be disappointed (and if you are you can tell me – and I’ll take the wines off your hands for you)!

Chapel Down Brut NV, Pinot Reserve 2006, Blanc de Blancs 2007 and Rosé NV are available in Hong Kong from Continental Wines and will soon be available from their on line retail store Victoria Wines (www.victoriawines.com.hk). For more information you can call them on (+852) 3469 9967