Proper RTD English sparkling wines are the most important category in our wine business.
When we first put my alcohol-free brand, Jukes, into cans, we wanted an up-market expression to use while talking about our cans. We landed on Ready-to-Pour or RTP.
Of course, Ready-to-Drink had already been commandeered by fast-moving fizzy pop and the like. Only the other day, a customer ordered some cans, calling them Ready-to-Enjoy! This makes my RTP expression look positively egalitarian!
I suppose the immediacy of the word ‘ready’ takes its romantic origins from Pret-à-Porter, the stunning name for ready-to-wear, off-the-shelf fashion ranges, one rung below those bespoke, couture and handmade items! Later, ‘pret’ was mangled by Pret A Manger, who diminished the ‘eat’ word in favour of the all-powerful ‘ready’, and this is a compelling and essential word in our wine lives.
It’s a shame RTD has been debased, as the expression RTD sparkling wines, gives the inaccurate and unfair impression that a wine is cheap, gluggable and forgettable.
Of course, this is entirely incorrect. RTD sparkling wines include legions of sensational Champagnes, English Sparklers, and wines from further afield that are genuinely delicious the moment they are poured into your glass. They are the opposite styles to those that are pinched, firm and youthful – like many sparkling wines that hit the market. These are Ready-to-Ignore, at least for the time being.
Proper RTD English sparkling wines are the most important category in our wine business. These wines are ready to impress, ready to amaze and ready to satiate. This notion alone sounds mouth-watering! But making wines with early-drinking and complete characters is far from easy.
At the very least, we have to manage our acid profiles like the most talented tightrope walkers! But this is only one aspect of a thrilling RTD sparkling wine. Fruit precocity and openness, without ever tipping over into tutti-frutti simplicity, is the greatest challenge, and this is where viti and vini teams must sing from the same song sheet.
If you can achieve RTD harmony, there is no excuse for people not opening your wines. If they are truly balanced, mellifluous and enjoyable, you cannot fail! Every successful portfolio must be based on epic RTD wines. Is yours?
2020 Rathfinny, Blanc de Noirs
£55.00
www.rathfinnyestate.com
Mark Driver is the King of RTD wines. I remember at his first press launch, after I pulled him aside to discuss the wines, scratching my head about how unbelievably enjoyable they were compared to the opposition’s creations. Mark replied that he wanted to make wine to drink now. We will release them when they are drinking. I worried that they might not have the ability to age. I need not be concerned because if balance is born, everything else follows. This newly released 2020 BdeN is a perfect case in point and it also happens to be Mark’s favourite style.
Made from 86% Pinot Noir and 14% Pinot Meunier, in conditions that rivalled 2018, this is a glorious wine that sits alongside any overseas creations. It is plush, silky, layered and effortlessly classy while maintaining a freshness and crunch on the finish thanks to its lip-smacking 3g/L dosage. Every great Champagne producer hammers home the message that if your grapes are perfectly ripe at harvest, they don’t need much additional sweetness. Rathfinny has done this on countless occasions, and this wine is the latest in a run of sublime red grape wines.
2019 Weyborne, Oriana, Vintage Brut
£45.00
www.weyborne.com
£48.00
www.brunswickfinewines.com
www.hawkinsbros.co.uk
I have known Weyborne’s commercial director William Sharpley for getting on for 38 years. Wine trade orbits intersect with encouraging regularity, often with never enough time for a chat, rarely more than a nod, but occasionally a glass or two of wine.
William’s extraordinary tenure at Moët Hennessy set him up perfectly for a career move into our own wine trade, and he picked Nick Clarke’s remarkable Weyborne Estate, which has been featured in this very magazine. I liked the 2018 Family Reserve Brut, but when I tasted 2019 Oriana with William last year, I recognised a serious step up in luminosity, cadence and silkiness. This wine is drinking perfectly already with generous patisserie notes among the charming orchard fruit tones. The packaging is beautiful, and the flavours continue in this vein.
NV Cottonworth, Classic Cuvée
£31.49 www.allaboutwine.co.uk
£31.99 www.strictlywine.co.uk
£33.00 www.hic-winemerchants.com
This was the first wine of around 300 I tasted at the recent Berkmann Wines Cellars tasting. It was wine number one in the booklet and one of a dozen that I wanted to write up as soon as possible when I left the Guildhall.
It is fortunate, then, that this month’s theme and deadline made its inclusion in this column possible. Made predominantly from the 2019 harvest from 58% Chardonnay, 35% Pinot Noir and 7% Pinot Meunier, with a slight 4.2g/L dosage, this is a seamless, gentle, resonant wine with a medium-weight body and a long, clean, zesty finish.
It does nothing whatsoever to appeal to fans of big, bold, rich, theatrical wines. Instead, it seeps into your senses, spreading perfectly judged Zen-like joy that is pinpoint accurate and deeply refreshing, and anyone and everyone will understand its message. This is a spectacular RTD sparkler that romances the senses with unwavering accuracy.
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