Friday read: Celebrating English Wine Week with Nyetimber library stock
Among the myriad events contributing to the countrywide festival that is English Wine Week (21-29 June), one in particular caught our eye at Harpers – an invite to join Nyetimber at 10 Greek Street for a dinner titled ‘Ageing with grace – how English Sparkling Wine is redefining vintage fizz’. An event aimed at normal wine-loving punters, it nonetheless promised an ‘opening of library of wines… featuring a curated selection of back vintages including Classic Cuvee NV, Classic Cuvee 2009, Classic Cuvee 2005, Blanc de Blancs 2016, and 1086 Prestige Cuvee 2010’. And this all matched with the very tasty tucker and relaxed dining vibe for which this standout Soho oasis is rightly known. So, we headed on down…
Explaining that the event was, in a sense, an English Wine Week extension of 10 Greek Street’s Unusual Suspects wine evenings, operations director Will Clarke then added, “of the thousands of wines we’ve had come and go from the wine lists over the 13 years we’ve been open, there is only one wine that has never left the wine list since day one, and it’s Nyetimber Classic Cuvee”.
He then handed over to Nyetimber brand ambassador Charlie Lowe, who revealed that his focus this year was to showcase the producer’s library stock, comprising wines dating back to 1992, “which really don’t see the light of day enough”.
Glasses primed with Classic Cuvee, Lowe then proceeded to give an enjoyable potted history of Nyetimber, from monastic foundation via ownership by Anne of Cleves, to the modern era when, in 1986, an American couple Stuart and Sandy Moss, bought the estate and planted the first vines. And their first wine, a Blanc de Blancs released in 1992, went on to win the accolade of ‘Best English Sparkling Wine’ in 1996.
Other gongs followed, with changes of ownership eventually landing Eric Heerema in the estate’s driving seat in 2006, with further serious investment culminating in the most recent world-beating awards from Decanter and IWC for Nyetimber sparkling wines.
Back to those library wines, which the attendees began taste – all of which were ageing in a beautifully balanced fashion – and Lowe explained, in an aside, why he felt that it is so important to begin to show older vintages of English fizz. And how Nyetimber, sitting as it did at the forefront of the quality revolution that has subsequently swept through English sparkling wine production, is among just a very few that are currently well placed to do so.
Lowe’s premise is that as a young ‘New World’ producing country, with just two to three short decades of commercial scale production under its belt, the English wine industry needs to show that its sparkling wines have the complexity and ability to age as well as any. Winning awards up against the top tier wines of the likes of Champagne is all well and good, generating welcome headlines, but now it’s time to start building in the “perception of quality” that comes with longevity. A longevity revealed both through the wines and with the beginning of a coming of age for such a youthful industry.
Certainly the wines on show – mostly out of magnum – backed Lowe’s assertion that English sparkling wine has “a great future ahead”, with the still fresh Classic Cuvee 2009 marking a point where this estate had really hit its stride in terms of ageability. Add in the food-compatibility on show across a range of quite punchily-flavoured dishes, and the argument for aged English fizz became even more compelling.
Gently underpinned by these messages, this was a highly enjoyable way to dip into the celebrations for English Wine Week. And judging by the sea of empty glasses around the lively table, everyone present seemed to agree.
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56-58 Church Walk, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 9AN
Registered in England No. 6646125. VAT No. 938 4452 95
