Rotter`s Champagne VS English sparkling wine

Rotter’s
Champagne
VS
English
sparkling
wine
awards
2015
The Marksman,
254 Hackney Road,
London E2 7SJ
28.09.15
Words by The Rotters
Photographs by Mick Dean
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Noble Rot 91
Left: Twelve bottles of
English sparkling wine
and Champagne waiting
to be served blind
Right: Fred Siriex,
Xavier Rousset MS,
Jamie Goode, Neal
Martin & Ruth Spivey
Below: Mikael Jonsson,
Jancis Robinson MW,
Stephen Harris &
Raphaël Rodriguez
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.
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“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
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
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.
Noble Rot 93
Rotter’s Champagne
VS English Sparkling Wine
Awards 2015
Results
1
7
2
8
3
9
4
10
5
11
6
12
Hambledon
Classic Cuvée
English Sparkling
Total score 178,5
Average score 14,88
Nyetimber
Classic Cuvée 2010
English Sparkling
Total score 175
Average score 14,58
Pol Roger
Brut Réserve
Grande Marque Champagne
Total score173,5
Average score 14,46
Taittinger
Brut Réserve
Grande Marque Champagne
Total score 173
Average score 14,42
Bérêche & Fils
Brut Réserve
Grower Champagne
Total score 167
Average score 13,92
Wiston Estate
Cuvée 2010
English Sparkling
Total score 166,5
Average score 13,88
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Frerejean Frères
Brut
Grande Marque Champagne
Total score 165,5
Average score 13,79
Marguet
1er Cru Extra Brut
Grower Champagne
Total score 164
Average score 13,67
Gusborne
Brut Reserve 2010
English Sparkling
Total score 160,5
Average score 13,38
Below:The top five
(from left to right)
Bérêche & Fils, Tattinger,
Hambledon, Pol Roger
& Nyetimber
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
Chartogne-Taillet
Sainte Anne
Grower Champagne
Total score 160
Average score 13,33
Veuve Clicquot
Brut Yellow Label
Grande Marque Champagne
Total score 159,5
Average score 13,29
Savart
L’Ouverture
Grower Champagne
Total score 150,5
Average score 12,54
Noble Rot 95
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
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
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
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.
Left: Pouring the
contenders
Below: Collecting the
scores
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