Sheer luxury

I think it’s fair to say that we have collectively cracked the sparkling wine code in the UK. We have a complete range of styles, price points, flavours, formats and colours. Job done. Or is it?

Have we, as a movement, fully considered not only wines that fulfil specific tasks, like celebrations, gift-giving, aperitif duties, and the most basic requirement of quenching one’s thirst, but also one other crucial occasion? I think there is one more sector that we are just coming to terms with, and that is wines that are considered as downright spoiling, treat-worthy, luxurious, and hedonistically pleasurable above all else.

These pure, emotional triggers are not usually realised by expensive wines that impress, command respect and shock with their scale or grandeur of flavour. No, I mean wines that you crave, simply because they are downright delicious, all-encompassing and decadent. These are guilty-pleasure wines that don’t necessarily cost the earth, but which change the mood for the better with every single sip. These are also wines you need to buy a couple of bottles of, and not just one!

This month, I have found three wines from three famous estates that focus solely on unmitigated indulgence and sheer luxury. Go on, you know you deserve it.

MV Nyetimber, Rosé

£47.00

It’s funny, standing back from this piece and noticing that Langham gets a Chardy write-up, while Nyetimber, an estate whose Chardonnays I have almost exclusively focused on since the 1992 Blanc de Blancs release, warrant a mention for its rosé. This is progress indeed!

I have never written up this winery’s multi-vintage rosé, and yet seemingly in an instant, it has released a wine of unedifying beauty that will rank among the most exuberant and best value examples of this style of wine from anywhere on earth (and I say best value at £47, let alone the scandalous £32 that Amazon was quoting the other day!).

The quality of the red grapes buried in this wine is nothing short of imperial, and they must have been glistening during harvest, such is the sheen and buoyancy found here. This is a strident, opinionated, bold and determined rosé, while at the same time possessing tenderness and poise rarely found in a wine of this style.

If you are seeking to impress friends with a rosé packed with both flair and gravitas, this is it.

NV Langham, Blanc de Blancs, Dorset

£46.95

www.langhamwine.co.uk

The first Langham wine I ever wrote up was the 2011 Brut Classic Cuvée Reserve in a huge English Wine Compendium I compiled for my column in the Daily Mail back in 2016. I wonder if this was one of the first wines this estate released!

Interestingly, I remember it well, and what I find worthy of unprecedented admiration is the stratospheric evolution this winery has undergone in the intervening decade.

In fact, my featured, soon-to-be-released, ‘new label’ Blanc de Blancs is based on the 2021 vintage and, with an imposing 44% reserve wine addition (the previous 2020-based wine utilised only 10% reserve wine), is yet another landmark for this brand.

I understand that the fruit was picked relatively late, which adds an extra boost of intensity, and, coupled with a very low dosage (1.5g/L) and cunning oak augmentation, this is a wine dripping with gorgeously decadent upholstery.

The evolution in this Blanc de Blancs has been remarkable and relentless, with this wine the apogee, and it manages to nail the brief, in terms of its crystalline frameworks, but eclipses one’s wildest dreams with the drapery and filigree finishes of its heavenly fruit.

It is a worthwhile exercise to track down the ‘old label’ and compare it to this newly released wine. Not only does it show an extraordinary step forward in terms of winemaking acumen, but it also reveals the innate quality and potential of the fruit from this forensically tended farm. In the blink of an eye, Langham has unleashed one of the most luxurious Blanc de Blancs this country has seen.

2020 Rathfinny, Blanc de Noirs

£55.00

I have long been a fan of this heady, seductive wine. I am not alone in admiring its attributes from all angles, and this is precisely what Mark Driver set out to achieve when he launched this programme many moons ago. I have a feeling he set the bar for this wine first and raised it above any other in his portfolio because he personally adores this strident style. But there is more.

In keeping with the handful of truly great BdNs that pass muster in my notes, this wine brings with it a heady sense of perfume and mystery long before you take a sip. This is critical in selling the story of a white wine made from red grapes.

It then gets even better with a veritable cornucopia of Pinot notes laid out on the palate for inspection. Once again, and in keeping with my overarching theme, every fruit note, berry, flower and delicate spice is polished to perfection. There is a sense of volume while maintaining vital momentum, and this is critical, too. No one wants a richer sparkler to apply the handbrake in the middle of your palate, and then need a bump start to roll it over the finish line! And while Rathfinny skips along to a tidy, prim finish, it manages to scatter rose petals and peonies in a final, ostentatious fanfare.

Gosh, this is an impressive wine, and it will silence even the stuffiest of fizz aficionados who continue to baselessly decry the absolute qualities of our country’s finest sparkling wines.

For more like this, sign up for the FREE Vineyard newsletter here and receive all the latest viticulture news, reviews and insight