What to Call English Sparkling Wine?


For many years now English sparkling wine has been casting around for a catchy name to call itself. Obviously we can't use Champagne. Firstly because the French tidied that one up in The Treaty of Versailles at the end of the First World War. Secondly, we wouldn't want to confuse our wine with an inferior product! Not having the luxury of a unifying area, like Champagne, we've resorted to, at times slightly embarrassing, marketing speak names. Britagne deserves an honourable mention in this category.

Merrett was suggested and used by some. Christopher Merrett was the Englishman who presented a paper to The Royal Institution in 1662 on how to make wine sparkling through the addition of sugar to start a secondary fermentation. This was some six years before Dom Perignon even joined the Abbey that made him famous. Perignon, whilst a great innovator, ironically spent his life trying to prevent his wines from being fizzy!

Recently there's been quite a bit of press about the UK wine trade body, the UKVA, trade-marking "Brit Fizz". This slightly uninspiring name was apparently being used in bars in America, where we're all known as Brits. But it does have the advantage of saying what's in the tin and includes Welsh winemakers. The downside is its connotations of "British Wine" a filthy concoction made from imported grape juice and partly responsible for the terrible reputation English wines once had.

There has been talk of throwing open the naming to the great British public, but we all know where that would lead us, Boaty McBoatface meet Fizzy McFizzface!

For our part we're just happy calling it English fizz. Follow this link to find some of our favourites. Cheers!