The pick of the sparkling wines came from the more "established" producers. Camel Valley from Cornwall (07 Brut), Nyetimber from West Sussex (01 Blanc de Blancs) and Denbies from Surrey (02 Greenfields). All had fairly searing acidity as you would expect and autolysis was pleasantly restrained in favour of some good primary fruit characters, suggesting English sparkling wine is not simply moulding itself in the image of Champagne. There were also some interesting vegetal notes in wines with higher proportions of Pinot Noir.
Prices remain high however, with some sparkling wines nudging £30 retail. The euro exchange rate has pushed prices of Champagne, Cava and Prosecco up over the last 18 months but this is still expensive enough to make consumers think twice before buying. Relying on the novelty aspect of English wine is not a viable long-term strategy and even those consumers who want to buy English wine need to feel they are getting value for money compared to EU and new world alternatives.
The one important and unforgivable negative is that the labels are almost universally awful. With the exception of Chapel Down, which has a smart black and red label design (see pic), the rest really need to pay some attention to presentation. Asking premium prices for English wine is hard enough but when the packaging is so unappealing producers are doing themselves no favours.
