Biddenden Tasting

I went to a winemaker dinner for Biddenden Vineyards last night at a restaurant in the Clapham/Battersea area called Artisan & Vine. While I've been to winemaker's dinners before, it was my first at this particular venue. The evening was fantastic - the food and wine matching were excellent, and the hosts - both from the restaurant and the vineyard - were both charming and informative. They're doing more events throughout the year, including some day trips out to some of the English vineyards, and I'm hoping to go to another dinner in August.

But the reason why I'm blogging is that we started the evening with a sparkling wine from Biddenden, their Quality Pink Sparkling Wine 2007. This wine is 100% gamay grapes, something a little different for a sparkler. It was good - a lovely, deep rose colour with a strong aroma of strawberries. I was worried that the wine might be too sweet for me, but the strawberry flavour was balanced with just a touch of grapefruit, making it a perfect sipper. It had enough bubbles, too, plentiful on pouring and tapering off to a steady fizz toward the end of the glass. I was pleased with this wine, but don't think it quite deserves its £20 price tag - I've had equally good cavas and proseccos in the £10-15 range, which is where I would have priced this wine.