We'll say it loudly: English wine is brilliant, and that's exactly why we're such huge advocates of it at Manchester Wine Festival. Every year we make sure some of the best English producers are pouring, and every year someone tells us they didn't know English fizz could taste this good.
Twenty-odd years ago, English wine was a punchline. Now it's the bubbles serious drinkers seek out, and the reason is in the ground. The chalk that runs beneath Champagne dips under the Channel and pops back up in the South Downs and North Downs. Add a cool, long growing season that keeps acidity crisp and alive, and you've got conditions sparkling winemakers dream about.
Most English sparkling is made the traditional way, the same as Champagne: a second fermentation in the bottle, then months or years resting on the lees. That's where the magic happens. Wines that start out all green apple, citrus and hedgerow blossom pick up brioche, toasted almond and baked apple, with a fine, persistent fizz.
Chapel Down, from Tenterden in Kent, is England's leading wine producer and a big reason English wine gets taken seriously. Its sparkling rosé made history as the first English rosé to win Best in Show at the Decanter World Wine Awards. Digby Fine English does things differently, blending grapes from vineyards across the south of England to chase a house style of precision and finesse. Taste them side by side on the day and see how different English fizz can be.
Then go further. Beare Green Winery from the Surrey Hills and Burnt House from Suffolk are showing where the next generation is taking things, and Still Room is making vermouth from English wine. Find them all on our exhibitors page.
Want to go deeper? Book Beare Green co-founder Jimmy Smith's masterclass at 1.15pm, or join Ashley from UK Vineyard Guide at 7.25pm to find out where to visit England's vineyards for yourself.