Judgement of St Katharine’s dock has a winner – France vs UK

The people have spoken and the results are in….. You did not think I would spoil the winner right away, would you? Of course not, first let us describe the premise and the lineup. The theme of the wine tasting was Sparkling Wine – UK vs Champagne.

 

Before getting started though, you may want to check out our Champagne-post recently published before this tasting. https://www.threeforks.co.uk/exploring-the-champagne-region-grapes-method-and-winemakers/

The premise was to taste all wines blind and vote before any further information was given. Each person was given one vote for one wine.

Wine 1

The first wine was Ridgeview Bloomsbury that was served to Barack Obama when he visited Buckingham Palace. This is a blend of the three champagne grapes. The acidity was quite sharp and according to the description citrus fruit aroma with hints of melon and honey.

Wine 2

Second up was the blanc de blanc – JM Seleque 100% chardonnay that takes grapes from 5 different grand cru terroirs. This one had a creamy mouthfeel with honey, lees and generally riper fruit. Much more complexity and nice brioche. This one was clearly different from the rest in style.

Wine 3 (no photo)

Second up was Charles Clement that has a 70% Pinot noir, 18% chardonnay, 12 meunier with the idea being a comparison to the first wine we had based on the grape composition. It had a lot of lees on the nose but generally a very dry, cidery red apple.

Wine 4

Lastly we have the Gusbourne Exclusive Release 2019, a vineyard in Appledore, Kent that is a nice day trip from London that I can highly recommend. Their wines are also great overall and apparently have great parties for their wine club members which sets you back approximately 500£ yearly but that also includes a decent amount of wine. This wine is from 2019 and all wines they make are vintage wines (see our champagne-article if you want to find out more) which is not typical. This specific wine has undergone partial malolactic fermentation and is stored on the lees for 18 months. It has a very high acidity with a clean flavour with pear and the bubbles are intense. This was this favourite UK wine of the group scoring 20% of the votes.

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However, both french wines took home a combined 70% of the votes with wine number 2 being the clear winner. Maybe next year!