For years, the received wisdom was that English sparkling wine would deliver an acid line sharp enough to slice through a cream tea.
As author and critic Tom Stevenson once noted: "At a spring tasting, what stood out was the wines' extremely youthful nature and searing acidity. The level of acidity in the wines is so high that many would be found undrinkable by a regular New World fizz drinker."
But it's precisely this razor-edged freshness that has drawn Champagne houses – and, more recently, Jackson Family Wines – to the UK, investing in vineyards across southern England. They have come in search of the cool-climate promised land.
Yet vintage 2025, a scorcher by all accounts, has rather upset the script. After one of the hottest seasons on record, growers are anticipating wines of exceptional flavor ripeness, but with only a modest bite. Such an occurrence would have been unthinkable during the industry's first growth spurt; climate change strikes again.
"We are anticipating the earliest harvest on record for White Castle Vineyard," says co-founder Robb Merchant.
"It has been a season marked by very early ripening – we normally harvest around September 24, but we'll begin two weeks earlier this year. Some of our young vines have struggled in the heat since we don't irrigate. Nevertheless, we expect some fantastic flavor profiles this year, although acidity levels will definitely be lower than in previous vintages. We may have to acidify." And they are not alone.
Shifting the goalposts
In 2011, I remember visiting a Champagne cellar during a rain-soaked harvest and spotting bags of sugar stacked behind an old concrete tank. At the time, it seemed incredible that regions in northern Europe would one day fret over acid levels rather than how much chaptalization was needed after another deluge. But here we are – and there's no guarantee 2025 is a one-off.
According to Helen Power, marketing and communications manager at Simpsons Wine Estate: "We have seen roughly a 25 percent increase in sunshine hours and so we are currently tracking two weeks ahead of our usual harvest date. The warmer weather conditions have accelerated the grape maturity, giving riper and fuller flavors, which will be particularly favorable for still wine producers.
"Given the inconsistent growing season patterns over the last few years, there will be mindfulness around deviating from a house style for sparkling wines but the still wines will display riper characteristics this year. Conditions so far do favor still wine production and perhaps we will see sparkling wines not completing MLF this year."
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