Fancy a wine adventure without having to get on a plane? The English wine scene is positively shining right now. Thanks to the warm, dry conditions of this past summer, the outlook for our home-grown vintages has never looked more promising.
In my latest quarterly wine column for This England (Winter 2025), I share my top English sparkling wine picks to bring a little brightness to winter evenings. From the long-awaited debut of Domaine Evremond, a landmark release backed by the Taittinger family, to the consistently elegant Ridgeview Bloomsbury, there truly is a bottle to suit every palate and budget.
In the Winter issue of This England, you’ll discover:
- Which English sparkling wines offer the best value for money
- Where to buy top-rated English fizz
- The best English sparkling wines for winter celebrations
- Whether high-quality English sparkling wine can be found in supermarkets
- How last summer’s weather has shaped the upcoming vintage
- How the 2025 harvest compares to the legendary 2018 crop
- Why French Champagne houses are increasingly investing in British soil
Available in-store and online.
Subscribe via http://classicmagazines.co.uk/this-england
This England Spring 2026 issue, Coming soon.
For more wine stories, recommendations and insights, follow @elizabethwinegirl on Instagram
Transcript
Did you know that England can make wine? Yeah. We make wine just like the French make champagne. We have basically copied them, but do a really good job of it. So how many vineyards do you think we have in The UK? 10? 50? A 100? Over 700 vineyards. Honestly, we're making some amazing sparkling wine, and this week, I'm gonna tell you more about how and why we're doing it. One of the reasons we can make such amazing sparkling wine is because of the climate. The weather is warmer in The UK, therefore, we are able to ripen our grapes. The alcohol levels can get high enough to be able to make beautiful sparkling wine.
Transcribed automatically from the speech, so a name may be misheard.
Elizabeth x
