Who doesn’t like a little bit of bubbly? And while the likes of France and Italy continue to dominate the world of still wines, it seems you needn’t go far to find some of the very best sparkling vino.
Decanter World Wine Awards just released its results for 2023 and the UK hasn’t fared badly at all. The competition is widely considered one of the world’s most prestigious wine awards and this year it involved 236 wine experts from 30 countries judging a mammoth 18,250 wines from 57 countries.
The awards have five medals up for grabs: best in show, platinum, gold, silver and bronze. Only 50 best-in-show medals are given out, making it the highest accolade at the competition.
Gusbourne Estate in Kent received a best in show for its Blanc de Blancs 2018, a champagne that is described as being ‘full of citrus aromas, with lemon, pink grapefruit and orange zest, followed by notes of green apple and white flowers’.
A 2018 sparkling rosé made by Ridgeview Wine Estate in East Sussex was awarded a platinum medal, while five British vineyards in Hampshire and Kent all received gold medals for their sparkling wines.
Producers in Cornwall, Staffordshire, Shropshire and Essex also won a host of silver and bronze medals, bringing the UK medal total to an impressive 143.
Simon Field, of the DWWA, said of the UK’s success: ‘The quality of the sparklers continues to impress as the category takes on maturity; as the wines and winemakers alike take on a little more age it becomes increasingly clear that the long-held faith in such things has most definitely not been informed by misguided patriotism.’