English Sparkling Wines from Sussex for Valentine’s Day: A Brief Guide
With Valentine's Day fast approaching, what special bottle of bubbly or favourite fizz are you going to enjoy with your loved one? Many people will choose or aspire to buy a bottle of champagne, but with many people in the UK now curbing their spending on certain luxuries, maybe it's time to try a bottle of English sparkling wine.
More adventurous regular wine drinking fans will probably already know about the up and coming world class sparkling wine producers around the UK. Surprisingly, the English wine production industry has been producing award winning wines for many years now at incredibly reasonable prices; this has been going so well that even some French wine producers have been very interested in buying vineyards in the South East countryside.
The counties of Sussex and Kent have some of the best wine producers in the country and many of them produce multi-award winning, quality sparking wines. Some of the best producers have risen to nationwide and international fame during the last 10 €" 20 years.
The county of Sussex has a unique advantage over many other wine producing regions in the British Isles, which is its geographical location, topography, geology and the meso-climate in this region. This is important, as it aides the growing of grapes for the production of wine, in particular sparkling wines. Added to this is the particular soil composition locally and that of the South Downs which run across the county of Sussex, which is characterised by rolling mineral rich chalk €down-lands'. To put things into context, this is the very same geographical vein of chalk soil which runs all the way from the famous wine producing region of Champagne in northern France; it drops down under the English Channel and then re-emerges up into the Kent and Sussex regions, hence the white cliffs of Dover.
This is exactly why Sussex and Kent are particularly unique and ideal for the growing of vines for grapes which will be used in still and sparking wine production. Three of the prominent sparkling wine producers to look out for in the shops or even visit if you happen to be heading to Sussex for a romantic break over Valentine's Day are Nytimber, Ridgeview Estate and Breaky Bottom vineyard.
These three wine producers are well established and all produce world class, multi-award winning sparkling wines which are extremely comparable to the wines of Champagne. These producers all use the traditional Champagne method of bottle fermentation, and they make their sparkling wines by using the three classic Champagne grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier), grown in their own estates.
So, make sure you seek out some of these local vineyards if you plan a trip to Sussex to taste some great sparkling wines, or alternatively pick up a bottle soon at your local wine shop and taste what Sussex has to offer.
More adventurous regular wine drinking fans will probably already know about the up and coming world class sparkling wine producers around the UK. Surprisingly, the English wine production industry has been producing award winning wines for many years now at incredibly reasonable prices; this has been going so well that even some French wine producers have been very interested in buying vineyards in the South East countryside.
The counties of Sussex and Kent have some of the best wine producers in the country and many of them produce multi-award winning, quality sparking wines. Some of the best producers have risen to nationwide and international fame during the last 10 €" 20 years.
The county of Sussex has a unique advantage over many other wine producing regions in the British Isles, which is its geographical location, topography, geology and the meso-climate in this region. This is important, as it aides the growing of grapes for the production of wine, in particular sparkling wines. Added to this is the particular soil composition locally and that of the South Downs which run across the county of Sussex, which is characterised by rolling mineral rich chalk €down-lands'. To put things into context, this is the very same geographical vein of chalk soil which runs all the way from the famous wine producing region of Champagne in northern France; it drops down under the English Channel and then re-emerges up into the Kent and Sussex regions, hence the white cliffs of Dover.
This is exactly why Sussex and Kent are particularly unique and ideal for the growing of vines for grapes which will be used in still and sparking wine production. Three of the prominent sparkling wine producers to look out for in the shops or even visit if you happen to be heading to Sussex for a romantic break over Valentine's Day are Nytimber, Ridgeview Estate and Breaky Bottom vineyard.
These three wine producers are well established and all produce world class, multi-award winning sparkling wines which are extremely comparable to the wines of Champagne. These producers all use the traditional Champagne method of bottle fermentation, and they make their sparkling wines by using the three classic Champagne grapes (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier), grown in their own estates.
So, make sure you seek out some of these local vineyards if you plan a trip to Sussex to taste some great sparkling wines, or alternatively pick up a bottle soon at your local wine shop and taste what Sussex has to offer.
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