ROYAL BUBBLY

IN CASE YOU’VE BEEN living under a rock . . . British bubbly is a big deal. It’s so big that even the Queen of England has latched onto the craze by producing 3OOO bottles of sparkling wine from vines grown on her estate. Don’t get out your credit card just yet . . . they’ve all been snapped up although more is on the way. The sparkling wine industry in England is booming, becoming so popular that the UK is currently shipping out to 27 countries and boasts annual sales of about £1OO million (US $125 million). The Queen has tapped into that success with her own her vineyard on the Windsor Great Park estate, where 16,7OO Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vines were planted on a seven-acre patch back in 2O11. The English Quality Sparkling Wine is made from grapes harvested two years later in October 2O13 and was only released four months ago. It underwent fermenting and blending and then spent two years ageing in the cellars. It boasts of offering both “richness and finesse” and having an aroma of “delicate toasted brioche, apricot and citrus notes”. The sparkling wine was available as a three-bottle gift set online for £75 (US $93.65) through wine retailer Laithwaite’s, but soon sold out. However, a second batch is expected to be released later this year priced at £35 (US $43.7O) a bottle, with production expected to soar to 2O,OOO bottles a year within six or seven years. By opening her own vineyard, HRM followed in the footsteps of her ancestors as Henry II first cultivated grapes in the 12th Century at Windsor Castle.