Champagne vs English Sparkling

Dearest Gentle Reader,

Who needs overpriced (and dare I say, oftentimes tiresome) Champagne when one can indulge in the delights of high-quality English sparkling wine? I can already envision the French preparing to take offence at my words. But let us face facts: consumers are weary of the usual Champagne and are craving something new and unique.

Why is English sparkling wine so esteemed that your humble wine correspondent dares to favour it over Champagne? Allow me to present the following reasons:

• Many techniques used in Champagne production were actually developed by English winemakers.*Read Below for more information on this.

• English sparkling wine is often aged for a shorter period than Champagne, resulting in a fresher, fruitier style.

• This wine is produced using the traditional method — the same employed in the Champagne region.

• Certain winemaking areas in the south of England share the same soil composition as the Champagne region.

• With climate change causing increasingly hot summers in France, England's more temperate climate is now ideal for grape-growing.

A particularly noteworthy example of fine English sparkling wine, which has already become a favourite among the Cellar Door Wines team, is Four Acres Estate. The team recently had the pleasure of visiting the vineyard and winery to observe the wine-making process, as Cellar Door Wines is the exclusive retailer of this delightful wine.

Cellar Door Wines Team at the Four Acres vineyard

Four Acres is a modest, family-run vineyard, winery, and orchard spanning 4 acres (1.6 hectares), established in 2012 in Little Hadham, Hertfordshire. In 2015, Platon Loizou, the proprietor, produced his first wine. Each year, they produce a limited quantity of 1,500 bottles in total, and Cellar Door Wines is proud to be the sole store offering these wines. Four Acres produces a sparkling white — Blanc de Blancs (100% Chardonnay), a sparkling rosé (made from Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes), and a Champagne Method cider.

English sparkling Four Acres spends 18 months on the lees

When asked, "English sparkling or Champagne? Which would you choose?" the response is resoundingly in favour of the English. As Mr. Loizou explained, "For me it`s a process of love, not an industrial thing. My grandfather had a vineyard, and I always dreamt of making wine. I love wine, and I wanted to be engaged in this passion. That’s how Four Acres began" (the name, incidentally, was already part of the estate when it was acquired).

Each bottle is labelled manually by Platon

Each bunch of grapes is carefully hand-picked, each bottle is hand-labelled. One can literally feel all the love Platon and his family puts in the production, and this is more valuable for your author than big names and no much care for consumer (on this note I can`t stop but thinking about Moët & Chandon).

Chardonnay grapes at Four Acres Estate (early August)

This author hopes that her readers are already adding this splendorous wine into their baskets because at least once in the lifetime one should taste something better than Champagne.

Yours truly,

Lady Vino

*The French will always tell you that they invented the sparkling wine. they maintain that the 'methode champenoise' was discovered by the monk, Dom Pierre Perignon at  in 1697 at Hautvilliers. In fact, in 1662, in the pretty town of Winchcombe, in the Cotswolds, a scientist called Christopher Merrett first documented "how to put the fizz into sparkling wine".