When I heard Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2003 had come out top in a blind tasting at the world sparkling wine championships in Verona, beating super-brands such as Louis Roederer 2000 (who make the famous Cristal), my reaction was: so what? Blind tastings throw up weird results. When judges' scores are averaged out, the least offensive wine often comes out on top.
Until now I've been impressed but not bowled over by English sparkling wine. The best small-batch luxury cuvees can be good, but their price puts them into competition with people who have been making champagne for centuries. Then, this morning I tasted the latest release of the Nyetimber, which kicked up such a storm in Italy. It is made in West Sussex from a blend of the classic champagne grapes, chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. It has enormous concentration and persistence of flavour – longer than the train journey from London to Penzance.
The sensations in the mouth start with a fresh flash of acidity that broadens out like an estuary, ripe, welcoming and soft. Then it takes a more serious turn, becoming eye-wateringly intense, like biting into freshly picked redcurrants. If I hadn't known, I would have mistaken it for a champagne. It has the classic champagne structure, reminding me slightly of Jacquesson or Billecart-Salmon.
Most English wines taste chalkier – you can smell the leanness, the austerity, the lack of ripeness. But this is from 2003, the year of the heatwave that ruined a lot of wine on the European mainland, but which seems to have brought out the character of Nyetimber. It tasted better than most widely available brands of champagne. I'd rather drink this than Bollinger Special Cuvee, a wine I like very much. The only thing I wish they'd change is the label. A wine this grown-up needs better clothes.
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