Another delightful vid Tweedy. Here's the thing, I've a significant birthday coming up and I'd love to celebrate with some choice ESW! I'm putting you on the spot rather, but can you recommend 5 of your favourites? As I hail from Lewes, I'm particularly keen on sparklings from Sussex.
My five favourite Sussex based producers are: - Breaky Bottom - Sugrue South Downs - Black Dog Hill - Rathfinny - Nyetimber ...although if you want to be purist about it then Nyetimber, although mostly based in Sussex, also own vineyards in Hampshire so some of their wines include grapes from there. I think Sugrue South Downs have similarly once or twice strayed over the border into Hampshire (but possibly just one vintage of their rosé?). It's a bit more difficult to choose a specific wine from each of those producers! I overall tend to prefer Pinot dominant rather than Chardonnay dominant wines but most of those producers do a mix of styles if you prefer the other way round. - My recent favourite from Breaky Bottom is their 2018 "Cuvée Noella", a Blanc de Noirs... but really everything from there is great, in my opinion. - For Sugrue South Downs: The "Trouble with Dreams" series is a reliable favourite. To be honest I was slightly disappointed by the new "Bee Tree" series they've launched - I got the sense some of that wine was stock which they bought along with the vineyard, probably made by someone else, so I didn't think it's up to their usual (very high) standard. - From Black Dog Hill I actually think their rosé is really good, very gutsy, quite different from what you might expect from a rosé - but again everything from there is good. - Per you other comment - yes I did like the Rathfinny featured here, but I think I actually slightly preferred their Blanc de Noirs. The Blanc de Blancs was also a surprise hit when I had both in Folkestone last week. The Rathfinny 2020 Mini Cuvée (the one in the "pint sized" 50cl bottle) is also spectacular but hard to get hold of, and if you're having a party then maybe a smaller bottle format like that doesn't make much sense. - From Nyetimber I'm actually very happy with just their "bog standard" classic cuvée! It's often on special offer in the supermarkets so if you shop around you should be able to pick up a bottle for £29.99. As you're probably aware both the Harvey's Brewery shop and Symposium Wines are good places to buy English sparkling in Lewes: at least one of them should sell Breaky Bottom. Black Dog Hill seem to have a little shop in Ditchling, but I've never seen it open.
Loved this! How do you feel about giving ratings in your reviews? If not on a typical wine scale then perhaps something more rudimentary - I always found the final segment of this chap's cider reviews (www.youtube.com/@TheCiderDrinker) both quite satisfying and useful
Thanks James! It's a good suggestion and I agree it would improve the videos if I could get it right - but I think I would really struggle to be consistent! My current mood is a big factor of how much I enjoy a wine and I think it's also heavily affected by the setting - so I suspect all wines I taste when I'm somewhere more interesting than my back garden would get a higher rating. I'll take a look at The Cider Drinker though and give it some thought.
I'm guessing you'd recommend the above?
Another delightful vid Tweedy. Here's the thing, I've a significant birthday coming up and I'd love to celebrate with some choice ESW! I'm putting you on the spot rather, but can you recommend 5 of your favourites? As I hail from Lewes, I'm particularly keen on sparklings from Sussex.
My five favourite Sussex based producers are:
- Breaky Bottom
- Sugrue South Downs
- Black Dog Hill
- Rathfinny
- Nyetimber
...although if you want to be purist about it then Nyetimber, although mostly based in Sussex, also own vineyards in Hampshire so some of their wines include grapes from there. I think Sugrue South Downs have similarly once or twice strayed over the border into Hampshire (but possibly just one vintage of their rosé?).
It's a bit more difficult to choose a specific wine from each of those producers! I overall tend to prefer Pinot dominant rather than Chardonnay dominant wines but most of those producers do a mix of styles if you prefer the other way round.
- My recent favourite from Breaky Bottom is their 2018 "Cuvée Noella", a Blanc de Noirs... but really everything from there is great, in my opinion.
- For Sugrue South Downs: The "Trouble with Dreams" series is a reliable favourite. To be honest I was slightly disappointed by the new "Bee Tree" series they've launched - I got the sense some of that wine was stock which they bought along with the vineyard, probably made by someone else, so I didn't think it's up to their usual (very high) standard.
- From Black Dog Hill I actually think their rosé is really good, very gutsy, quite different from what you might expect from a rosé - but again everything from there is good.
- Per you other comment - yes I did like the Rathfinny featured here, but I think I actually slightly preferred their Blanc de Noirs. The Blanc de Blancs was also a surprise hit when I had both in Folkestone last week. The Rathfinny 2020 Mini Cuvée (the one in the "pint sized" 50cl bottle) is also spectacular but hard to get hold of, and if you're having a party then maybe a smaller bottle format like that doesn't make much sense.
- From Nyetimber I'm actually very happy with just their "bog standard" classic cuvée! It's often on special offer in the supermarkets so if you shop around you should be able to pick up a bottle for £29.99.
As you're probably aware both the Harvey's Brewery shop and Symposium Wines are good places to buy English sparkling in Lewes: at least one of them should sell Breaky Bottom. Black Dog Hill seem to have a little shop in Ditchling, but I've never seen it open.
@@EnglishSparklingWine Thank you, that's a great and very helpful response. Cheers bro!
Loved this!
How do you feel about giving ratings in your reviews? If not on a typical wine scale then perhaps something more rudimentary - I always found the final segment of this chap's cider reviews (www.youtube.com/@TheCiderDrinker) both quite satisfying and useful
Thanks James! It's a good suggestion and I agree it would improve the videos if I could get it right - but I think I would really struggle to be consistent! My current mood is a big factor of how much I enjoy a wine and I think it's also heavily affected by the setting - so I suspect all wines I taste when I'm somewhere more interesting than my back garden would get a higher rating. I'll take a look at The Cider Drinker though and give it some thought.