France and England have always had a love/hate relationship. But when it comes to wine, for centuries it’s been a stable and mutually beneficial arrangement of French winegrowing supported by English adoration and investment.
Visions of French wine stocked in the cellars of romantic English manors seem the most natural and ever-constant image to anglophiles worldwide. Save for a mutual distrust and disdain toward Germany from the 19th through mid-20th centuries, a supreme affinity for the wines of France is the one thing these two societies could always agree on.
But the cultural counterparts now find their relationship in uncharted territory.
With the backdrop of Brexit and a changing climate, English traditional-method bubbly is now blossoming in the southern sunshine. Surely this is bound to test the historical British fondness for Champagne now that a domestic hero has entered the scene.
Can the frothy French tipple of Winston Churchill and millions of other thirsty Brits survive a legitimate rising star from within? And what does this mean, both culturally and economically, for the two countries now that a touchstone of economic cooperation and cultural admiration is destined to be inexorably altered?
Champagne Problems and English Dreams
Weird and worrisome things are afoot in the vineyards of Champagne.
The legendarily cool — even borderline hostile — winegrowing climate has been evolving toward downright pleasant over the past decade or so; the formerly frosty green hills now basking in the sunny glow of a rapidly warming climate.
On the bright side, occasional catastrophically underripe, underdeveloped vintages are now a thing of the past. While that also sounds like a boon for weekenders looking to get away among the vines, the relatively balmy conditions present a major problem for Champagne’s classic flavor profile. Riper means richer and rounder, but without the electric acidity required to tie the room together. And for a style of winemaking critically reliant on intrinsic zestiness, that calls into doubt the future viability of elite-level bubbly production for which the region is so universally renowned.
Certain vintages are now reaching Châteauneuf-du-Pape-like temperatures. Champagne houses are necessarily responding with a combination of new techniques blended with resigned pragmatism toward the oncoming reality.
Enter English Sparkling Wine.
“There’s quite a lot of mediocrity with famous [Champagne] brands and marketing budgets. The French for me are the incumbent. That’s quite a fun Goliath to have a go at.”
An oncoming calamity in Champagne is an unintentional gift for the plucky upstart vineyards of the anglo island some 200 miles to the northwest. Historically a bit too chilly and rainy for quality grape-growing, the vineyards of southern England are now starting to hit the Goldilocks zone for world-class fizz production.
The upside for both parties? Sparkling wine is faring far better than most categories in this moody moment of wine industry upheaval. But while Champagne as we know it settles into what may be its twilight epoch, English bubbly is just getting warmed up.
Competition and Partnerships Both Fizzing Up
“I think the first time it was brought to my attention was about 15 years ago,” says Shehnaz Hansraj, wine expert and head of research for Viking Cruises U.K. “The [English] bottle of wine I had brought home had beaten all the Champagnes it was up against.”
It was one of the first major shots across the bow in the simmering sibling wine rivalry, and it certainly hasn’t been the last.
Subsequent results more recently have backed up the previous outcomes, clearly signaling that English bubbly has officially arrived. “It’s all sort of coming together,” Hansraj adds. “[But] it’s still quite difficult when you’re smaller, and it’s going to be a journey of discovery.”
There’s still an uphill battle to be fought against the entrenched global perception of absolute Champagne domination over all things fizzy, and the French powers that be aren’t expected to willingly bend the knee on their most iconic wine brand anytime soon. “It’s strange how people are willing to spend 25 to 30 pounds on average Champagne,” Hansraj says.
Trevor Clough, co-founding CEO and head blender for Digby Fine English, echoes the bemused frustration of his colleague. “There’s quite a lot of mediocrity with famous [Champagne] brands and marketing budgets,” he says. Yet he’s confident that England is more than prepared for a scrap. Regardless of outcome, it’s an ideal opportunity to commandeer a few headlines for the English sparkling brand. “The French for me are the incumbent. That’s quite a fun Goliath to have a go at,” he says. Though when it comes to cash flow and brand power, it’s nowhere near a fair fight just yet.
Across the Channel, the Champagne brand juggernaut — thus far perfectly unscathed — has at least come about and taken notice, and some telling recent developments have raised eyebrows: Champagne houses are one by one getting into the English bubbly game.
It’s no shocking revelation that French producers have been investing in projects abroad. From California and Oregon on down to Chile, French producers have been expanding into relatively young, promising regions for decades.
Though this time, with the recent forays into southern England from the likes of Taittinger (with Domaine Evremond) and Pommery (with Louis Pommery), there’s an underlying sense of hedging for the future built into the calculus: staking a claim on nearby foreign shores in light of potential domestic difficulties.
Granted, the climate of Champagne hasn’t gone off the deep end quite yet, but the writing is on the wall. And with relatively similar soils, a climate beginning to resemble the Champagne of old, and a location within only half a day’s drive, the new winegrowing hotbeds of Sussex, Kent, Surrey, and Hampshire appear to be a winning bet.
Carving Out the English Sparkling Kingdom
The competition and collaboration with Champagne isn’t all beneficial for English fizz. There’s a feeling that a point of diminishing returns exists with the comparison, and that the British product should lean into a message of singular uniqueness as opposed to likeness with others.
“I think it’s about drinking local and thinking local. Creating a sub-culture like that. There is a lot of work to be done to create awareness.”
“For me, I don’t need to tiptoe around any French brands,” says Clough. “To be honest, the prospects of French wines in England isn’t what keeps me awake at night. They’ll be just fine.” Champagne will find a way to adapt and survive, but England needs to establish itself first and foremost; to stop relying on comparison and to find its own distinctive marketing voice.
Standing up as splendidly British — with a unique terroir and unquestionable qualitative excellence — should be the messaging goal in a crowded global sparkling winescape. “I can sum up English terroir in two words: energy and sophistication,” says Clough. “We [at Digby] set out to have very confident English branding, away from shields and gold and such. We make English wines, and we’re very proud of them.”
There’s also culture and tradition development to be done.
For Champagne, that heavy lifting has been deftly handled for centuries, and to great effect. For English bubbly going up against its own fixated affinity for French fizz? “We don’t take to new things quickly or easily,” Clough says of his fellow Brits. The odd irony in that statement? The hardest sell for English sparkling wine may be its own domestic market. “You’ve got to earn your crust. Making a high-quality glass of fizz is just the beginning,” he adds. “We need to build traditions and culture around our wines.”
But for the British wine professionals taking up the torch for their nobly native bubbly, there’s an immense sense of both pride and eagerness to spread the good word. They have an indisputable winner on their hands, and they know it. Now all that has to be done is to work out a hook to rope the masses into giving them a chance.
“I think it’s about drinking local and thinking local,” says Hansraj. “Creating a sub-culture like that. There is a lot of work to be done to create awareness.”
And while there’s still no consensus on topics such as category brand name (e.g. Cava, Champagne, Prosecco) — nor any enthusiastic collaboration on cleverly British packaging shtick like imperial pint-sized bottles — it’s still early days for the anglo upstart. Continued time and effort will be rewarded, and the future is warm and bright. “English wine just has so much opportunity,” Hansraj says. “It’s constantly evolving, and so fast. There is so much to be seen and explored and enjoyed.”
To be clear, the skies around Reims aren’t falling just yet. Champagne is still doing perfectly fine. But for the long-term future of top-notch sparkling wine? Well, it may be time to start heading north.
