Daily Mail-collega Olly Smith meldt dat voor het tweede achtereen volgende jaar een Engelse rosé-sparkling tot ‘ beste ter wereld’ is gekozen. Het gaat om de Camel Valley ‘Cornwall’. Wie eens wil uitpakken met de feestdagen: voor nog geen 25 Britse ponden drink je de mooiste rose pinot noir-bubbels die wereldwijd voor de kampioenstrofee werden ingestuurd.
Het bericht:

“British wine and English wine are two very different things, and it’s all too easy to get them confused.

British wine isn’t made from grapes grown in Great Britain. It’s fermented and bottled on our shores, but the grape juice – often arriving in concentrate form – comes from abroad.

English wine, on the other hand, is made from grapes grown in England. And I’m a massive fan of the rising quality of English sparkling wine in particular.

For the second year in a row, Camel Valley in Cornwall won the International Sparkling Rosé Trophy, for its Pinot Noir Rosé 2009. That means it’s officially the very best in the world! It’s £24.95 from camelvalley.com.

In the sparkling-white section of the same competition, Gusbourne Blanc de Blancs 2006 bagged fourth place, with Nyetimber Blanc de Blancs 2002 and Ridgeview Grosvenor 2007 named in the top 25.

If you thought English sparkling wine was a novelty, overrated or a blip related to the trend for sourcing locally, you were mistaken. English wine is here to stay. But so, it seems, is British

In the wine trade, mention of the term ‘British wine’ receives the sort of reaction you’d expect if you said ‘muddy puddle’. It’s suggested the word ‘British’ confuses consumers seeking local vino – and worse, that it may actually put people off tasting English, Welsh and Channel Island

Nonetheless, British wine’s popularity is rising – perhaps thanks to its cheaper price in tough times. But that’s not the whole story. Due to producers’ attempts to market English sparkling wine better, there are a few different terms for our local fizz knocking around.

There’s ‘Merret’, used by my local winery Ridgeview, paying tribute to Christopher Merret, who presented a paper to the Royal Society in December 1662 documenting how to make sparkling wine – several years before it became famous in the French region of Champagne.

‘Cornwall’ is used by Camel Valley. And there’s ‘Britagne’ (pronounced ‘Britannia’), coined by top-class Hampshire fizz outfit Coates & Seely for its new sparkling rosé”