French Champagne Loses To British Sparkling Wine in International Competition

by Deb West (RSS feed)
Jan 30th 2010 at 11:02AM

The Bollicine del Mondo is an international wine contest organized by Italy's leading wine magazine Euposia. Held at the famous restaurant Antico Bottega del Vino in Verona, Italy the contest revealed a surprise winner in the sparkling wine category. The winner this year was Nyetimber's Classic Cuvée 2003 produced in Sussex. It is probably the very first time a British wine maker has held the honors of producing the best bubbly in the world.

The contest winner was chosen in a blind taste test by a panel of winemakers, oenologists, sommeliers and journalists and beat out such established makers such as Bollinger and Louis Roederer. There were 52 entries in the category and Nyetimber was the only producer to have two wines make it into the top 17. The Nyetimber 2001 Blanc de Blancs, which was also entered, came in 12th ahead of seven of the champagnes.

Certainly there has been a growing appreciation recently of sparkling wines that are made outside the Champagne region of France. In fact, many people never have been exposed to the lovely sparkling wines that come from other countries such as Prosecco from Italy and Cava from Spain. Not only are these wines often just as good as Champagne but their price tag is significantly lower. The sparkling wines from England are no exception and retail for around £25 to £30.

Another point of interest is that the grapes used in the winning wine are grown on vines in the south of England whose soil composition is very similar to that of the Champagne region. In fact Luxist reported in 2007 that French champagne maker Roederer was investigating buying land in the very area that the winning vineyard is located. Stuart and Sandy Moss who own the vineyard specifically chose the 120 acre estate for this reason and started cultivating the three classic champagne varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

Tags: british, champagne, competition, england, France, sparkling wine, SparklingWine, wine, winning

Filed under: Wine

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

peter gelfand Jan 30th 2010 1:05PM

Congrats to the Brits...I imagine Sonoma CA. Iron Horse "vrais ami" would also score quite well, but since its only made for Charlie Trotter restaurants we will never know.