Nyetimber, a Blanc de Blancs with a British touch

Nyetimber is an historic and by now authoritative reality in the still limited world of winemaking in England, where climate change has by now made it opportune to cultivate quality grapes in the south. The estate has ancient farming roots and was mentioned in the Doomsday Book of 1086, although the first vines were only planted 900 years later. It was not until 2006 that Nyetimber Sparkling Wines had a respectable following at home and abroad. The estate exclusively cultivates Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir in its 170 hectares of vineyards situated between West Sussex and Hampshire. 

Nyetimber is the name of this place originally known as Nitimbreha, which probably referred to a new house made of wood or a small tree farm. The estate is currently owned by Eric Heerema and supervising production is the talented enologist Cherie Spriggs, who trained as a researcher at the Universities of Adelaide and Vancouver before coming to England in 2007. Since then she has been in charge of production which is done following the traditional method used for Champagne with the grapes picked by hand using small baskets and then undergoing soft pressing using a vertical Coquard press. The wine is then made on a parcel by parcel basis and ages long in the cellar.

In order to highlight these elements, Nyetimber prints a code on its bottle to indicate not only of when the bottle was disgorged but also when it was bottled and when riddling began. For example, Blanc de Blancs 2009 (sold in Italy by Visconti 43, Meregalli’s new distribution arm) has the code L09BB2061l07 and according to the producer’s website this translates: Bottling date 25.03.2010; Riddling Date 17.03.2016; Disgorging date 10.05.2016. This means that the wine sat for six years on the lees before being disgorged with a sugar dosage of 10g/l. This is a very well-made sparkling wine that is decidedly surprising for its finesse and elegance, considering it is English, but the old Albion still has a way to go before it can approach the excellence from across the Channel.

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