London: Where is the English sparkling wine?
You might think with all the success English sparkling wine has been enjoying in recent years that the streets of the nation's capital would be awash with it.
Like many capital cities, London represents the country's largest concentration of people with significant disposable income; the main hub of the food and drink scene, and moreover the principal thoroughfare of international tourism. Over 10 million residents and commuters, and 20 million tourists in 2018. If you want to sell any product in the UK it makes sense to have it widely available here.
So, where is all the English sparkling wine? It is surprisingly hard to find here.
(Click here if you just to see the list of best places in London to drink English sparkling wine)
Earlier this year I went to Borough Market, having read about Wine Pantry, only to discover their tasting room has closed - it was previously at 1 Stoney Street, but has now been replaced by Kappacasein Dairy. It seems from the website Wine Pantry now focuses instead on organised tastings and tours, but as far as I can tell currently have no shop/bar presence in London.
For the sake of nostalgia here's a video from 2011 of a tasting at Wine Pantry with none other than Stephen Skelton:
Quite sad to hear those words "London's exclusively English wine shop and tasting room." back in 2011 - when nothing quite like that exists today!
I continued my stroll around Borough Market confident that there must be some kind of representation of English wine there instead now, but saw almost nothing. Is anywhere else in London more synonymous with food and drink tourism? You could get a train from nearby London Bridge station to Burgess Hill, and even with the walk at the other end be at Ridgeview in around an hour... but was there any ESW to be seen at Borough Market? Not as far as I could tell.
In August 2016, I had been to visit the English Wine and Spirits Company in the City, near Liverpool Street. This was another mixed bar and shop concept, with knowledgeable and friendly staff very eager to talk about the subject. This too seems to have subsequently closed down.
In the run up to Christmas 2017, Nyetimber had a popup at the Royal Exchange with, in my opinion, some rather beautifully done decorations and this made for a great setting to enjoy a glass of ESW. It was, however, just a seasonal thing, and despite having a well stocked shop unit in addition to the bar, it was all gone by January.
Perhaps these producer led ventures are the way forward in the short term - sadly it seems the third party enthusiast driven businesses have struggled, presumably a victim of London's cripplingly high commercial rents, and a lack of consumer awareness about the product. Perhaps just ahead of their time?
More recently (towards the end of 2018) Chapel Down established what appears to be a permanent presence in Kings Cross. It's a mixed offering, with a restaurant, bar, and even an onsite gin distillery. The drinks go beyond Chapel Down's range of wines to also include beer and cocktails - all their own products. They do carry the full range of Chapel Down's wines, including the excellent Kits Coty Coeur de Cuvee 2013, which (unlike the other wines) is the same price in the bar as it is retail. It still seems like a fair number of customers go there and don't actually drink any wine, and of course you can't really taste your way through a range of different producers there - it's only Chapel Down's products.
There are of course a number of restaurants and wine bars in London which have at least some English sparkling wines on their wine list - see here for my list of the best places to drink ESW in London based on the breadth of selection.
However, it's a city with somewhere in the region of 20,000 restaurants, and if I were to have to hazard a guess I would say right now probably no more than 100 of those serve any English wine.
On top of that there's about 3500 pubs - and although I have mixed feelings about wine in pubs (an environment where surely beer should still reign supreme?), it is now commonplace, but I struggle to think of any London pubs where any of the wines on offer are English.
Given that, of those 10 million residents and commuters, and 20 million tourists who pass through London every year, how many of them have ever actually tried any English wine? Or are even aware that there is good quality English wine available? Is it even getting to 1% of that group?
There is still a long way to go!
Like many capital cities, London represents the country's largest concentration of people with significant disposable income; the main hub of the food and drink scene, and moreover the principal thoroughfare of international tourism. Over 10 million residents and commuters, and 20 million tourists in 2018. If you want to sell any product in the UK it makes sense to have it widely available here.
So, where is all the English sparkling wine? It is surprisingly hard to find here.
(Click here if you just to see the list of best places in London to drink English sparkling wine)
Earlier this year I went to Borough Market, having read about Wine Pantry, only to discover their tasting room has closed - it was previously at 1 Stoney Street, but has now been replaced by Kappacasein Dairy. It seems from the website Wine Pantry now focuses instead on organised tastings and tours, but as far as I can tell currently have no shop/bar presence in London.
For the sake of nostalgia here's a video from 2011 of a tasting at Wine Pantry with none other than Stephen Skelton:
Quite sad to hear those words "London's exclusively English wine shop and tasting room." back in 2011 - when nothing quite like that exists today!
I continued my stroll around Borough Market confident that there must be some kind of representation of English wine there instead now, but saw almost nothing. Is anywhere else in London more synonymous with food and drink tourism? You could get a train from nearby London Bridge station to Burgess Hill, and even with the walk at the other end be at Ridgeview in around an hour... but was there any ESW to be seen at Borough Market? Not as far as I could tell.
In August 2016, I had been to visit the English Wine and Spirits Company in the City, near Liverpool Street. This was another mixed bar and shop concept, with knowledgeable and friendly staff very eager to talk about the subject. This too seems to have subsequently closed down.
In the run up to Christmas 2017, Nyetimber had a popup at the Royal Exchange with, in my opinion, some rather beautifully done decorations and this made for a great setting to enjoy a glass of ESW. It was, however, just a seasonal thing, and despite having a well stocked shop unit in addition to the bar, it was all gone by January.
Perhaps these producer led ventures are the way forward in the short term - sadly it seems the third party enthusiast driven businesses have struggled, presumably a victim of London's cripplingly high commercial rents, and a lack of consumer awareness about the product. Perhaps just ahead of their time?
More recently (towards the end of 2018) Chapel Down established what appears to be a permanent presence in Kings Cross. It's a mixed offering, with a restaurant, bar, and even an onsite gin distillery. The drinks go beyond Chapel Down's range of wines to also include beer and cocktails - all their own products. They do carry the full range of Chapel Down's wines, including the excellent Kits Coty Coeur de Cuvee 2013, which (unlike the other wines) is the same price in the bar as it is retail. It still seems like a fair number of customers go there and don't actually drink any wine, and of course you can't really taste your way through a range of different producers there - it's only Chapel Down's products.
There are of course a number of restaurants and wine bars in London which have at least some English sparkling wines on their wine list - see here for my list of the best places to drink ESW in London based on the breadth of selection.
However, it's a city with somewhere in the region of 20,000 restaurants, and if I were to have to hazard a guess I would say right now probably no more than 100 of those serve any English wine.
On top of that there's about 3500 pubs - and although I have mixed feelings about wine in pubs (an environment where surely beer should still reign supreme?), it is now commonplace, but I struggle to think of any London pubs where any of the wines on offer are English.
Given that, of those 10 million residents and commuters, and 20 million tourists who pass through London every year, how many of them have ever actually tried any English wine? Or are even aware that there is good quality English wine available? Is it even getting to 1% of that group?
There is still a long way to go!
So is there any good place to buy English Sparkling Wine in London in 2021 with a wider selection?
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