Gusbourne has launched its 2014 English sparkling wine Fifty One Degrees North at £195 a bottle, believed to be its most expensive yet.
But others are not far behind – Nyetimber's 1086 rosé 2010 is priced at £175 – yet Gusbourne's move reinforces a sense of ambition within the UK wine world to be a fixture at the level of this fine wine.
Named after the location of Gosbourne’s vineyards in Kent and West Sussex, Fifty One Degrees North is a blend of two-thirds Chardonnay and one-third Pinot Noir and has been aged for 80 months, reflecting eight years of behind-the-scenes tasting and observation, according to head winemaker Charlie Holland.
“It's great to finally be talking about this with people,” he told Decanter. “There are no shortcuts to any of this.”
Approximately 4,000 bottles of the 2014 edition were produced, and the winemaker does not intend to release wine every season.
“We want this to be the best winemaking we can do,” said Holland, who was about to begin his 10th harvest at Gosborne, with picking due to begin on September 18 this year.
“Everything that goes into this wine is the best we can do, the best part of the fruit, the purest juice that comes out of the press and then, when you come to the blending, the most expressive ingredients.”
Fifty One Degrees North is described as a delicious wine that can stand up to a wide range of flavors at the dinner table.
He said this partly reflects Gosborne’s personality. “In terms of the English wine scene, we’re often seen as being on the more mature side of the spectrum, and I think that’s largely down to our clay soils,” he said.
Commenting on the new wine blend, he said: “In general, Chardonnay wines have great freshness and strong structure, but the wines we have on clay, in particular, have great texture and great weight. When we were looking at this wine, these were the key qualities we were trying to define.”
The blend may change in future releases, though Holland said it broadly reflects the Gosborne vineyard's composition of 50% Chardonnay, 40% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier.
He said it was too early to confirm what other grape varieties might be released into Fifty One Degrees North. He said the focus would be on warmer, more mature years, but it was a waiting game to see which varieties would be appreciated.
He believes the launch reflects a wider “coming of age” for UK wine. “There’s a certain amount of ambition we’re putting into this,” he said. Comparisons with premium Champagne may be inevitable, but he believes the wider UK industry is developing a greater sense of its own identity.
“We're at this tipping point,” he said. “People know the quality is great, (so) how far can we go?”
“We do a lot of comparison with this wine, with other prestigious wines from around the world, and of course across the English Channel,” he added of Fifty One Degrees North.
“We tasted it extensively, blind tasted it, and showed it to a lot of people under different hoods before we put it on the market, so we were very confident in it.”
British wines have performed strongly at the Decanter World Wine Awards (DWWA) in recent years. At DWWA 2022, Coates & Seely and Reserve Brut NV won one of the 50 coveted ‘Best of Show’ medals.
