Happy Christmas!

It is not often I review a buyer’s own brand, but The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018 is made by the excellent English producer Ridgeview. It is also under thirty coins, and a Ridgeview at this price is, at the very least, worth drinking a bottle of instead of having lunch.

Ridgeview’s ‘own label’ Blanc des Blancs has a reputation for being the English sparkling wine most worthy of cellaring. Personally, I think that accolade belongs to the wines of Breaky Bottom, but there is no denying Ridgeview’s wines will age and improve for a few years.

I loved Ridgeview’s Blanc des Blancs 2018 that The Editor and I drank in the autumn. It is certainly expensive. However, for your money, you get a single-vineyard wine from, allegedly, the warmest vineyard in England (a few producers have vineyards that claim this epithet) that is made by perhaps the most skilled winemaking team in England.

The problem Ridgeview have is that they went bust about a month ago. They are being sold as a going concern and deserve to be bought by a sympathetic owner, as they do, most definitely make serious kit. Whether they can pivot to charging even higher prices and cover their costs is an open question.

Based on our taste of the 2018, I think they are worthy of our (that is you and me, dear reader) support. The 2018 is still on the market and will age for a few years yet. The 2019 and 2020 are also available. I will try to get a couple of bottles of one of these to age for 3 to 5 years. I will be in touch about how successful this turns out to be.

This Christmas Eve, The Editor are drinking this inexpensive wine from them. Who needs food? The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018 has spent, count them, 72 months on its lees. This is seriously late disgorged. Most English wineries that practise late disgorgement, and I am pointedly talking about Exton Park here, do not have base wines with enough power to survive this process. Exton Park charge far too much for far from acceptable wine.

Ridgeview have access to proper grapes from proper vineyards, although we do not know what proportion of grapes in this wine come from them! That being said, this is Ridgeview, it cannot be too bad, can it?

The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018, Ridgeview

The bottle pictured here is modelled with the beautiful Riedel Champagne flutes I bought The Editor for Christmas – obviously the best fizz glasses we have ever owned. Look how pale the wine is! It cannot have been made from grapes that were amazingly ripe even in the super-warm 2018 vintage.

What a lovely nose! Lemongrass, daisies, citrus fruits and a hint of chalkiness. There is reasonable power, almost roundness to the nose. Maybe the 2018 vintage was warm enough, after all.

There are biscuity, toasty characteristics of the long lees ageing that the wine has experienced. These are secondary to the wonderful, reasonably complex fruit characteristics that English Sparkling wines get from the long hang-time of the fruit. For less than £30, The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018 smells remarkably impressive!

The palate is incredibly soft, with a delightfully smooth mousse. The texture is frothy and round, amply mouth filling. It is fresh and energetic without being harsh or shrill.

There is plenty of delicious fruit from the long ripening time, enhanced by the warmth of the 2018 vintage. There are toasty, biscuity flavours too. As we drink the first half of the bottle, it seems like the base wines of The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018 have enough power to handle six years of lees-ageing.

The finish is a little more disappointing, with only hints of a chalky grip and some bitterness that probably comes from either wines from less ripe grapes being included in the blend or, less likely at Ridgeview, the grapes being squeezed until the pips squeak.

Alas, even though The Editor and I can get through a bottle of fizz faster than one can say “Jack Robinson” an appreciable number of times, we cannot compete with the evolution and collapse of this initially lovely fizz.

As we reach the end of this bottle, the fruit has faded and that bitter character becomes stronger. Being made from less good fruit than the real Ridgeview Blanc des Blancs seems to have hampered The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018 robustness. It falls apart.

However, for less than thirty coins, we are not complaining too loudly. For the first five minutes of the bottle it was a delightful drink for Christmas Eve. It has set me up for a jolly afternoon of repeatedly decanting the Tablas Creek Mourvèdre 2018 that we are having with our black pudding-themed dinner tonight.

If you are drinking a bottle of The Wine Society’s Exhibition English Blanc des Blancs Late Disgorged 2018 between more than a couple of people you will, no doubt, get through it quickly enough so that you do not experience its descent into death.

Lovely fizz, if you do not linger, at a very reasonable price. Now go and buy some proper Ridgeview so they stay afloat!

Happy Christmas from
The Editor and me!

PS. I have just tasted the Tablas Creek Mourvèdre 2018. It not only does not need decanting but also it is thin, nigh-characterless filth. I am not sure if we will be bothered drinking it. We might have to rely on Yellow Chartreuse with our black pudding-themed dinner!