Nyetimber at Cheltenham Festival

I've been attending the Cheltenham Festival on and off for a few years now, mainly because one of my other great loves in life, in addition to English sparkling wine, is tweed. This event has one of the highest concentrations of it you can find!

I hadn't been for the past couple of years though, and was wondering with the growth of the English wine industry whether there might now be some representation there. As I understand it there's a long running agreement between the festival organisers and LVMH, so Champagne brands like Veuve Clicquot have tended to dominate their sparkling wine offering.

So I was pleased to discover that for the first time Nyetimber would be making an appearance there, albeit a fairly gentle introduction, with their wines being offered in their old Routemaster bus, located in The Orchard area of the site. The main bars were still sticking to their standard Champagne offerings, so you did rather have to know Nyetimber were going to be there to find it.

Still, not such a bad thing for us, as it meant it was reasonably quiet, so we were able to get a table there both times we visited during the course of the day, and it made a good retreat from the crowds.

As far as I could tell they were just offering their Classic Cuvée and their rosé, although they did have magnums of the classic, and later on in the day (once we'd made a few new friends to share one with) I couldn't resist ordering one. There does seem to be a difference between a regular sized bottle and a magnum, even for the same cuvée from the same vintage(s). The ratio of volume to neck size (about the same on a magnum as on a regular sized bottle) causes changes in the way it matures, and also a better defence against oxidisation. This particular magnum showed beautifully, and was a great reminder of why I fell in love with English sparkling wine and Nyetimber in the first place. Fantastic balance, really elegant and just extremely drinkable.

By Cheltenham standards, I thought the markups on the bottles were not outrageous. Regular bottles of the Classic Cuvée were going for £75 (roughly twice the standard retail price at present) and the magnums were priced at £145. For comparison, on my last visit to Cheltenham back in 2017 if I recall correctly Veuve Clicquot's regular brut NV was going for in excess of £90 a bottle. Given that there were actually pleasant surrounds in which to sit and drink the Nyetimber (unlike the Golden Miller bar which is usually standing room only), and the fact an English wine seems just better suited to a quintessentially English event like Cheltenham, this overall seemed like a good deal.

I had a chat with Julian Kirk, one of Nyetimber's ambassadors, while I was there. We had met previously at a tasting he ran at Fortnum and Mason, as well as when I visited Nyetimber back in 2016. He's a very affable chap, and we discussed how the unseasonably warm weather we'd had in February was a cause for concern for English winemakers, as it may bring on early bud burst, which puts the young shoots at risk should there be a frost. The risk of frost usually runs until about mid-May, and it looks like it may be a tense time between now and then.

The weather today was actually rather grey and overcast, quite cold in fact - and Julian said that although not ideal for the Cheltenham Festival it was good for the vines at this point as it would slow things down a bit.