Steven Spurrier interview - Bride Valley English Sparkling Wine скачать в хорошем качестве

Steven Spurrier interview - Bride Valley English Sparkling Wine

Visit http://secretsommelier.com for the full article. Steven Spurrier: I’d say that before I went into the venture of planting my own vineyard which I’d been thinking about for a long time, the only sparkling wine in my cellar in Dorset, with the exception of a few presents that someone might send me, was always champagne. But of course, in my profession as a wine writer, I come across cava and franciacorta and sparkling wines from all over the world. I have to say that since planting the vineyard, the first vines went in in 2009, I don’t think I have bought a single bottle of champagne. Although I still have champagne in my cellar, I am more interested in other sparkling wines from around the world, because I am part of the game. Nick Breeze: What about English sparkling, do you taste a lot of what your peers produce? Steven Spurrier: Yes. I was at a tasting event on Tuesday and there were six English sparkling rosés. Ten years ago if I had gone to a tasting and there was English sparkling wine, I don’t think I would have paid too much attention but now it is the first thing I go and taste. Nick Breeze: Due to the impacts of climate change, Champagne producers I have spoken to say they have lost a degree of acidity and gained a degree of alcohol. Have you any thoughts on how this could play out in the UK if the temperatures continue a steepening rise trajectory in the next decade? Steven Spurrier: Global warming hasn’t come to Dorset, I can tell you that. I had a champagne producer round about 6 months ago at Bride Valley and he tasted and said “you’ve got what we’ve lost!” I said, “What do you mean?” and he said “acidity!” So your point is absolutely true, the alcoholic degrees in champagne are going up and the acids are coming down. I don’t think that is a bad thing at all because in the old days, 20 or 30 years ago, partially because of the cooler climate but also because the vineyards were much less well managed, the grapes were picked at 7 or 8 degrees alcohol and then they were chapitalised and so on and so forth. So champagne is in a much better position now, in my view, than it was. But there is the risk of the acidity, of the style of champagne being a little bit lost. The style of English sparkling wine is very much in the lively vivacious high acid style. That can be altered by a high dosage but that is not what I am after. From the start I have never gone above 8 [grammes per litre] in dosage for Bride Valley. When I dosed my 2013 at 8g/ltr, I was the first person in the country to go that low and then I think Ridge View went out at 8. I cannot go below 8 because my acids are too high but I don’t want to spoil the precision of Bride Valley by giving a high dosage. Nick Breeze: Do you think this characteristic of English sparkling wine, this acid, which is one of the defining characteristics, defines your intentions as a winemaker? Steven Spurrier: Well you have wine producers like Nyetimber who are at the moment bringing out a blanc de blancs 2009, so that’s 8 years, so it has had time time to absorb its acidity and had time to gain maturity. But as far as Bride Valley is concerned, the style of wine I wanted to make is the style of wine we are making, which is very precise, vivacious, high acidity aperitif style. I am not going to change that partially because we need to get the wine on the market quite quickly. I have no intention of keeping it 5 years on the lees. It is not a style of wine I want to make and it is economically not possible. Nick Breeze: So the economics bare quite heavily on that decision? It is part of the business plan in some respects? Steven Spurrier: I think it is style before business plan. I mean, it suits me financially to get the wine on the market while it is young. It also suits the wine.