English sparklers are top medal winners

English wines scooped a record number of medals in this year’s International Wine Challenge, with sparkling wines taking all the top awards.

Denbies Wine Estate picked up a coveted Gold for its Greenfields 2003, while RidgeView took two Silvers and two Bronzes, including one for a sparkling Chardonnay produced for Theale Vineyard. Owner and winemaker Mike Roberts said, ‘We entered four wines and a 100 per cent got medals - and that’s been happening every year. The message I take home is we’re doing what we should. We want to be considered consistent and we are.’

Camel Valley and Chapel Down also got two Silver medals each for their sparkling entries. On top of this, Bronze medals were awarded to a handful of still English wines, including a red - Wickham Vineyard’s Wickham Row Ash 2004 made from Triomphe D’Alsace and Rondo grapes.

In all, England received 21 medals, beating last year’s 16 and 10 in 2005.
However, France still dominates the competition and took 635 medals this year.