English Fizz for the Queen

by Andrew Barrow, Posted Jun 12th 2006 @ 1:03PM

An English sparkling wine has been selected to toast the Queen during her 80th birthday. RidgeView's Merret Grosvenor has been chosen to accompany the special lunch being held at the Mansion House on June 15 to mark Her Majesty's birthday. The task of choosing the wine was given to a panel made up of Members of Common Council (who?) and three luminaries from the wine trade: wine writer Charles Metcalfe, wine consultant Derek Smedley MW and Keith Garrard, recently retired from Chateau Lascombes. A selection of English Sparkling wines were tasted blind and RidgeView came out on top.

Made entirly from Chardonnay grapes grown in the chalky soils under the South Downs the wine had Mike Roberts at the helm. He said "Our wines are chosen for lots of reasons, to highlight occasions in peoples lives from celebrations of great wins to weddings and christenings. How absolutely wonderful for it to be served to celebrate Her Majesty's 80th birthday."

Fourteen of the UK's top chefs competed for the honour of producing the menu for this grand occasion and public have been following their progress on the BBC's Great British Menu series. [Slashfood covered the series here and here]

Filed Under: Drink Recipes
Tags: british isles, english sparkling wine, EnglishSparklingWine, food and drink, FoodAndDrink, queens 80th birthday, Queens80thBirthday, ridgeview, ridgeview merret, RidgeviewMerret, wine