At Teddington and Richmond in July we challenged both French fizz and ourselves. Not to declare any winners, but to contrast styles and refresh ourselves on the quality of modern sparkling wine making. All the wines we tasted were made by the ‘traditional method’, which involves adding a sugar/yeast mix to still wine, and allowing the magic of fermentation to produce a small amount of additional alcohol, and a lot of bubbles within a sealed bottle.
Our first pair of wines contrasted a the classic grape varieties of Champagne, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier. A Crémant de Bourgogne offered freshness and gentle acidity, while the Tasmanian blend which had spent three times as long on the lees (after the second fermentation finished in the bottle) offered more structure and bakery notes.
Pair two contrasted wines from the Loire and South Africa, but only the Crémant de Loire had any Chenin Blanc (along with some Chardonnay). The South African wine was a very unusual blend for a fizzy wine – Viognier, Grenache (vinified white) and Grenache Blanc. Both were super.
Tim then challenged us with two pairings tasted blind. Needless to say we didn’t do brilliantly (all we had to do was guess which was the French one!).
The big surprise of the night at Teddington was the lovely Catalunyan blend of Xarel-lo, Macabeu and Parellada – a beautiful delicate wine with super complexity (it wasn’t quite so popular at Richmond). This was contrasted with a classic Non Vintage Champagne, a blend of Meunier and Champagne.
Our final pairing was of two rosés. The first was very pale salmon in colour with a delicate strawberry flavour, this turned out to be an English sparkling wine made entirely from Meunier by two entrepreneurial ladies sourcing not only grapes but also winemaking facilities in Kent. The second was a blend of mainly Pinot Noir from the Aube in the southern part of champagne – much deeper in colour and more time on the lees lent it greater structure and gastronomic potential.
A chicken and mushroom lasagne by Cook was followed by some Chaorce and goat cheese at Teddington, at Richmond we enjoyed a Britannia Thai Beef salad and some pollock on ratatouille.
For details of the wines please go to the Wines we have tasted page.
