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Rotter’s Champagne VS English sparkling wine

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The Marksman, 254 Hackney Road, London E2 7SJ28.09.15Words by The Rotters Photographs by Mick Dean

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couple of them gave this a go regardless), and requested that they focus on scoring each wine’s aroma, flavour, balance and length out of a total of 20 points. It wasn’t our intention to conduct a scientific trial that would stand up to academic scrutiny, although we made strenuous efforts to prevent everyone from knowing what they were drinking, and everybody entered into the spirit of the day by keeping their curiosity at bay.

All twelve wines were served blind to the panel of judges in a randomised order. For 11 of the judges,

this meant ‘double-blind’, which is to say that they didn’t know what wines had been selected in the first place, let alone in which order they we’re served. The twelfth ‘panel member’ was made up of a combination of scores from Noble Rot editors Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew, both of whom tasted the wines blind, but knew which wines were somewhere in the line-up. Once all judges’ scores were collated, they were averaged out and placed in order, with the wine with the most points in first place.Please turn over for scores.

Left: Twelve bottles of English sparkling wine and Champagne waiting to be served blindRight: Fred Siriex, Xavier Rousset MS, Jamie Goode, Neal Martin & Ruth SpiveyBelow: Mikael Jonsson, Jancis Robinson MW, Stephen Harris & Raphaël Rodriguez

Quat’Saisons head sommelier Xavier Rousset MS; restaurant directors Raphaël Rodriguez (Fera at Claridge’s) and Fred Siriex (Galvin); La Fromagerie’s Patricia Michelson and Wine Car Boot’s Ruth Spivey.

Our criteria for choosing which bottles to include in awards was an upper limit RRP of £40, and that the wines could be considered benchmark for their peer group, many of which will be familiar to drinkers around the world. We asked the judges not to worry about identifying where each of the wines came from (although a

There can’t be many better things to do on a cold Monday morning than tasting a selection of top sparkling wines in one of London’s finest pubs. And that’s exactly what Noble Rot asked an influential panel of wine writers, chefs and sommeliers to do, when we wanted to find out whether English sparkling wine now has the quality to compete with Champagne.

“A sight of the label is worth 50 years’ experience,”

wine expert Michael Broadbent MW once said, so in an attempt to make our panel’s impressions more objective we covered the labels of twelve bottles of top bubbly, and randomly served the wines in flights of three for scoring. The judging panel was comprised of wine writers Jancis Robinson MW, Neal Martin, Kate Spicer and Jamie Goode; chefs Mikael Jonsson and Stephen Harris from Michelin starred restaurants Hedone and The Sportsman; ex-Manoir aux

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The results of the tasting are fascinating, but it is important to note that they serve as a snapshot of how each wine fared on a specific day, rather than a list of which wines are definitively ‘the best’. For a single English sparkling wine to be in the top three would’ve confirmed many people’s opinion that Champagne finally has competition in the Non-Vintage category, but the fact that England placed first and second (for Hambledon and Nyetimber respectively) was a surprise, and demonstrates just how far these wines have come. Almost as much of a surprise to Noble Rot was that the

highest scoring Champagnes came from Grande Marques rather than growers, especially as we had four of our favourite artisanal domains in the line-up. We were particularly disappointed to see low finishes for Chartogne-Taillet and Savart, wines that we enjoy drinking on a regular basis and wholeheartedly recommend to readers.

Looking deeper, some results provide evidence of a bias against English wines. One of the judges tried to identify the country of origin for each wine and fared badly, assuming that their bottom three wines must be from England (when in fact they

1HambledonClassic CuvéeEnglish SparklingTotal score 178,5Average score 14,88

2NyetimberClassic Cuvée 2010English SparklingTotal score 175Average score 14,58

3Pol RogerBrut RéserveGrande Marque ChampagneTotal score173,5Average score 14,46

4 TaittingerBrut RéserveGrande Marque ChampagneTotal score 173Average score 14,42

5Bérêche & FilsBrut RéserveGrower ChampagneTotal score 167Average score 13,92

6Wiston EstateCuvée 2010English SparklingTotal score 166,5Average score 13,88

7Frerejean FrèresBrutGrande Marque ChampagneTotal score 165,5Average score 13,79

8Marguet1er Cru Extra BrutGrower ChampagneTotal score 164Average score 13,67

9GusborneBrut Reserve 2010English SparklingTotal score 160,5Average score 13,38

10Chartogne-TailletSainte AnneGrower ChampagneTotal score 160Average score 13,33

11Veuve ClicquotBrut Yellow LabelGrande Marque ChampagneTotal score 159,5Average score 13,29

12SavartL’OuvertureGrower ChampagneTotal score 150,5Average score 12,54

Rotter’s Cham

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Results

Below:The top five (from left to right) Bérêche & Fils, Tattinger, Hambledon, Pol Roger & Nyetimber

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got top marks from one judge, who lauded it for being “very complex” and having “lots of potential”. Even the unlucky Fred Savart, whose ‘L’Ouverture’ was clearly having an off-day, wound up top of one judge’s list thanks to “lovely pear, apple and peach fruit with a long, balanced finish”. The fact that another of the judges damned ‘L’Ouverture’ with a score of zero (“did not like it at all”) made life difficult for Savart, though five other judges also placed it at the bottom of their respective piles. In fact, aside from Hambledon there were only two other wines that avoided being scored

lowest by any of the judges: Gusborne (which Jamie Goode complimented for its complexity and being “so distinctive”) and Frerejean Frères (which Fred Siriex described as “soulful and fruity with great balance”).

In all, the tasting was a brilliant chance to assess where the quality of English sparkling wine and Champagne is at today, with Noble Rot intrigued as to how each region might fare in our awards next year. But in the meantime, we hope you’ll join us in enjoying many of our delicious featured wines – chin chin!Special thanks to all at The Marksman, E2.

Below: The judging panel. (Back row, left to right) Fred Siriex, Kate Spicer, Jamie Goode, Neal Martin, Ruth Spivey, Patricia Michelson, Mikael Jonsson, Jancis Robinson MW, Stephen Harris and Raphaël Rodriguez. (Front row, left to right) Xavier Rousset MS, Dan Keeling and Mark Andrew

were all Champagne) and making an English wine their clear winner (while presuming it was French). In fact, 10 out of the 12 judges rated an English sparkling as their top or joint top scoring wine of the tasting and each of the four English wineries represented had at least one judge that placed them first. In the case of Wiston Estate, there were some low scores that pulled down the average, but five of the judges gave it their gold medal – on another day, it could well have been the outright winner.

As it was, Hambledon triumphed thanks to high scores across the board, with 2/3 of the judges

Left: Pouring the contendersBelow: Collecting the scores

placing it in their top three. One judge mistakenly wrote “this has to be French”, while Jancis Robinson MW described it as “taut but impressive” and “bracing, like a seaside walk”. Jamie Goode was similarly impressed, finding “precise and intense lemon character”, while Xavier Rousset MS observed that “it will be even better in a few years”.

The silver medal went to Nyetimber, which was scored highest by three of the judges, including Noble Rot. Kate Spicer thought it was “feminine, in a Céline kind of a way” and praised it for being “very elegant; not nasty nightclub bubbles for

slags”. Not far behind, in third place, was Pol Roger, a perennial British favourite on good form on the day. Neal Martin lauded it for being “nuanced, with good weight and persistence” while Patricia Michelson felt it was “stylish” with “good length”.

It was the consistently high scores for the three top-scoring wines that was key to their success, but many of the wines that placed lower still had their admirers. Taittinger scored highest, or joint-highest, for four judges, with Kate Spicer describing it as “pretty and innocent, in a Virgin Suicides kind of a way”, while Veuve Clicquot