Nyetimber's Classic Cuvée has become a flag-bearer for English sparkling wine, but they make several other wines, including this Blanc de Blancs. Vintage 2017 was one of low yields but good quality, with a later than usual harvest starting on 11th October. From Nyetimber's Greensand and chalk soils on the South Downs, the all-Chardonnay wine was aged six and a half years before disgorgement in November 2024. It is brut, bottled with 10g/l of residual sugar. The Chardonnay shines through here with a lemony thrust of precision driving the wine aromatically, though there are fascinating top and bottom notes of wildflowers and biscuit in the mix. The extended time on lees and higher dosage combine with pin-sharp acidity to give it great verve on the palate, yet some creamy, but always elegant depth of flavour and texture. A very nice Nyetimber release, and though prices vary across stockists, it can be bought for under £45. Use the wine-searcher link for all stockists. 
For me, the best vintage so far of one of Nyetimber's flagship vintage wines. Ambition in the English wine industry is a good thing surely, and companies like Nyetimber, who offer prestige cuvées at prices that edge toward Champagne's elite, have their heads well above the parapet. They are willing to be judged by what's in the bottle, and in this case it is an exceptionally fine sparkling wine from a single vineyard plot of Pinot Noir (73%) and Chardonnay planted on greensand. It spent a full five years on the lees, and was bottled with 9.5g/l of residual sugar. The colour has a hint of gold, the mousse is fine, and aromatically it flits between raspberry and nutty russet apples, yeasty autolysis and lime and lemon zestiness. On the palate there is that zippy, streaking freshness, but there is fruit sweetness too, quite intense, absolutely concentrated and direct, but the combination of the long ageing and thrilling acidity gives a long, energising finish. 
From the burgeoning English Sparkling Wine scene, this is a delightful West Sussex Brut blending the three main Champagne varieties. It's a cuvée dominated by 61% Chardonnay along with 34% Pinot Noir and 5% of Pinot Meunier. Though presented as Brut, after four years on the lees it was bottled with zero dosage.
It is a dry Champagne, but it is fruit-filled and far from austere. It has a fine mousse and a really biscuity, creamy and nutty nose, those autolytic aromas dominating the lemon and red apple fruit. In the mouth it zips along with dazzling freshness, but the nuttiness and the plush suggestion of sweet, ripe fruit at the core of this fills the mid-palate and gives excellent balance. A super impressive first tasting from this estate for me. 
Gusbourne is a trailblazer of the English wine scene, and seemingly endlessly inventive, with a clutch of one-off and new releases each year, both still and sparkling. The newest edition to the sparkling line-up, this is Pinot Noir from the 2016 vintage, sourced from Gusbourne's vineyards in Kent and West Sussex, and with 50% of the fruit 'dropped' - removed from the vine - during the growing season in order to strengthen and intensify the fruit that remained. A small percentage of the blend was fermented in oak barrels and the wine is Brut, with 7.5g/l residual sugar. Pale gold to straw in colour with plenty of miniscule bubbles, aromas are fresh and appetising, some hazelnut and almond, creamy and ripe orchard fruits, a hint of hawthorn. On the palate there's a juicy generosity to the fruit which is ripe, sweet and mouth-filling, verging on the peachy, but then the fine core of dazzling lemony acidity pushes through, a chalky element too, driving into a long finish. A superb English sparkling wine.
