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This magnum of Ridgeview Blanc de Blancs 2001 was donated by Richard Bampfield MW current AWE chairman. Richard has many strings to his bow and one of them is as a Champagne expert so his comments below on the wine for auction are particularly significant! He is recognised as being one of the best presenters in the UK on the subject of wine, but is also in demand in Hong Kong and China, and somehow finds time to teach wine at Leith’s School of Food and Wine.
Of this wine Richard says:
'Ridgeview Estate has been one of the pioneers of top quality English sparkling wine over the last 20 years. The vineyards are ideally situated on the chalk slopes of the South Downs and they have set out from the start to specialise in just sparkling wines. I have been fortunate to visit the estate on many occasions and have been both a keen follower of their progress and an eager consumer of their outstanding wines.
I drunk this particular wine on Christmas Day 2010 and was in no doubt it was one of the finest sparkling wines I had ever drunk. It certainly has to be a contender for the best English wine ever made - and competition is pretty tough these days! Only 150 of these magnums were produced, so it is an incredibly rare bottle that has already earned its place in English wine history - and it can no longer be bought from the winery. It is drinking well now and may well improve over the next 5 to 10 years. Below is a comment from Stephen Skelton MW, author of The Wines of Britain and Ireland and without doubt the foremost authority on English wines.
"The 2001 RidgeView Grosvenor Magnum Blanc de Blancs (winner of the 2010 UK Vineyards Association’s Gore-Browne Trophy for UK Wine of the Year, plus the 2010 Vintners’ Trophy for Best UK Sparkling Wine) is without doubt one of the finest, if not THE finest, UK sparkling wines yet produced. The problem with growing Chardonnay in the UK is getting the acidity ripe and in balance. Too much acidity, and in particular too much malic acidity, and the wine will be green and harsh and no amount of dosage will mask it. Get it right however, and like the other gloriously acidic fruits that we grow in England – think raspberries, blackcurrants, Coxes and Bramley apples, even rhubarb, all tasty fruits with great acidity – and you have a winner. When I first tasted this wine, at the 2010 St. George’s Day annual tasting of English wines, I knew it was a wine I simply had to have. Mike Roberts kindly sold me six, all yet to be disgorged, and I look forward to having the first of these on a suitable occasion. It has a superb lemon-infused brioche nose, on the palate it is full, with superb, mouth cleansing, tingling acidity. Pure pleasure on the palate." '
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