One of England's finest
Drinking one of England's top sparkling wines tonight - it's the Nyetimber Classic Blend 2003, from West Sussex. The nose is a bit lactic (hints of cheese and milk) with very fresh, herby, subtly toasty notes. It's quite serious. The palate is really fresh and has high acidity, but also lovely toasty depth. It's rich and quite Pinot-influenced. Sophisticated and quite dramatic with the combination of richness and almost alarming acidity; I'm convinced by this. 91/100Labels: English wine, sparkling wine
posted by Jamie @ 6:50 PM
9 comments
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9 Comments:
Although you say that you are "convinced" - this wine costs real money - about the same as a good cuvee from a reasonable Marque - are you really saying that this is as good as this?
Yes, I think it is - there's real complexity and interest. The acidity is very high, which makes it challenging, but it can certainly sit alongside good NV Champagne in quality terms.
Gosh - I am surprised - last time I tried it the overwhelming palate was of apples and citrus so definitely disagree with you there - and the price is ridiculous - should be no more than £15 in the UK.
Anon, have you tried this 2003 classic blend? There's lots going on here. It's a while since I had a non-Champagne sparkler with as much interest. Agree about apples and citrus, but there's a bit of toastiness, too, and plenty of complexity.
It would be good to try this blind - there's always a chance I'm being partisan, knowing its identity.
Jamie - blind tasting of a wine like this is essential - I once attended a blind tasting of 25 champagnes at Handford and nobody (including two MWs) spotted that there was a Cloudy Bay Pelorus in there - so - you need to taste the Pelorus blind against this one - why don't you do a blind Champagne tasting for your next Video Blog??? that would be EXCELLENT!!!
Jamie
I have to say I agree with you. Nytimber in my humble opinion is consistently good and always interesting. As a consumer and "geek" I often buy this and find it money well spent.
Pelorus is also good although far less toasty so I find the acidity far more overwhelming in this and therefore less pleasurable.
Thanks for your thoughts Jamie. Regarding the comment by Anonymous #2 and your reply - the only people that have tried this wine are yourself and the attendees of the International Sparkling Wine Symposium. We brought along pre-release samples since it was a technical tasting, but the rest of the cuvee is soaking up some additional post-disgorgment ageing. We are targetting 7 months for this wine, whereas bottles at the ISWS had just over half that time. We've been tasting the wine regularly during its development and are very pleased with the progress so if you enjoyed those bottles then stay tuned... Cheers!
Thanks for the explanation Brad. I was sent a box of wine with the remainders from the tasting, and this was one of them - so it was nice to get a chance to look at it again. Really looking forward to seeing the final release. It's a great effort.
Interesting Jamie you are such a Knowledgeable chap.
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