expense using the transfer method,” he says.
He does however single out
GLOSSARY OF FIZZ Asti – A sparkling white wine from the Piedmont region of Italy.
Blanc de Blancs – A white wine made without red grapes, typically a Chardonnay. Blanc de Noirs – A sparkling white wine made from red grapes, typically Pinot Noir. Cava – A sparkling white wine from the Catalonia region of Spain. Champagne – A sparkling white or rosé wine made from any or all of three grape varieties – Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier – within a delimited region of northern France. Franciacorta – A white or rosé sparkling wine from the Lombardy region of Italy. Prosecco – A sparkling white wine from the Veneto and Friuli regions of Italy. New World – Anywhere other than Europe. Old World – Europe. Sekt – Sparkling wine produced in Germany and Austria.
WINES TO LOOK OUT FOR Bodegas Gramona are widely regarded as the leaders in producing the new generation of high quality Spanish Cavas, using the traditional Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada grapes, along with some Chardonnay. The leading producers of English sparkling
wine are Chapel Down in Kent, Ridgeview in Sussex, and Camel Valley in Cornwall. Jansz from the Pipers River region of
Tasmania is regarded by many as Australia’s top sparkling wine producer.
One of the English wineries that has gathered most praise is Chapel Down in Kent, and the winemaker there, Josh Donaghay-Spire, believes that the international horizons of sparkling wine are extending. “Champagne has always been the benchmark in terms of quality for sparkling wine and those high standards still remain. England, however, is shaping up to be a real challenger at that very high level. In addition to exploring English sparkling wines I think there is some really interesting fizz coming from Franciacorta, Tasmania, and – if you spend a bit more than perhaps you’re used to and veer from the well-trodden path – then Cava also has some interesting options at the top end,” he says. It is noteworthy that the sparkling
wine regions Jones, Meiburg and Donaghay-Spire all focus on are in the Old World rather than the New. “The New World seems to have lost its footing. Many of the top New World sparkling wines are joint ventures with the big Champagne houses, and so the Grandes Marques don’t see the need to support them outside the domestic markets in which they are made,” says Meiburg. Jones agrees. “Anywhere
in Australia, California or New Zealand they are using Chardonnay and Pinot Noir to mimic Champagne, and they are either doing it 100 per cent bottle fermented or saving some of the
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Tasmania as an interesting up-and- coming area for sparkling wines, while Meiburg mentions California’s Sonoma County Iron Horse and J Vineyards and Winery, alongside the Macedon sparkling wines from the Hanging Rock Winery in Victoria, Australia, as good examples of interesting independent producers. Are any of these regions a significant threat to Champagne as the world’s premier producer of high quality wine? At the very top, not really. Even the best of the “grower Champagnes” cannot compete with the resources of the The Grandes Marques, and nothing from the New World so far can boast the subtlety and complexity of Krug, Dom Pérignon or Cristal. Further down the scale however
there are many sparkling wines that compete strongly, some of which, such as England’s Ridgeview, have beaten Champagnes in serious blind tastings.
Certainly non-Champagne sparkling wines are a growing sector. According to a report by the International Organisation of Vine and Wine global sparkling wine production has increased by 40 per cent over the last decade, to reach 17.6 million hectoliters in 2013. Champagne accounts for just 15 per cent of that. Old World production is still well ahead of New, with France, Italy, Germany, Spain, and Russia jointly accounting for 74 per cent of the total. However, production is increasing steadily in North America and Australia, and spectacularly in South America. Over the last 10 years Argentina’s sparkling wine production is up by 198 per cent and Brazil’s by 248 per cent. In value terms however, France, including Champagne, still dominates. It has 53 per cent of the market by value. And nobody launches a ship by cracking a bottle of Cava against it. n
JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2015 73
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