French whine.

Is it the grape, location or the protection offered by European laws to the name that make a good wine or saomething else?

See what you think after browsing this short note from The Guardian.

The Champagne houses eye up English vineyards

French producers are in the market for Kent and Sussex estates which have been outperforming them in competitions

Mark Honigsbaum
Tuesday May 31, 2005
The Guardian

From Kent's Isle of Thanet to the Sussex Downs, what began as a rumour, or a bruit as the French might say, may soon become a brut reality.

French champagne houses, impressed by the strong performances of English wines in international competitions, are looking to buy English vineyards.

So far members of the Comité Interprofessionnel du Vin de Champagne, the association of French growers and producers which controls the right to label and market sparkling wines as champagne, has approached at least two leading English winemakers with offers to purchase their prize-winning vines. But the English growers, buoyed by global warming and fizzing sales, have politely said non.

Undeterred, the French are turning their attentions to farmers and landowners in Kent, whose south-facing chalk soils are said to be perfect for growing chardonnay, pinot noir and meunier grapes: the classic champagne blend.

Canterbury estate agents Strutt and Parker say that in the past 12 months it has seen a surge of interest from champagne houses and is now actively representing a "number of producers".

Although Strutt and Parker will not mention any names - it is staying Mumm, so to speak - the Guardian has discovered that one of the houses is Champagne Duval-Leroy.

Last September, Carol Duval-Leroy, the proprietor of the venerable 150-year producer located in the southern Cotes des Blancs region of Champagne, arrived at the 405 hectare (1,000 acres) Quex estate in the Isle of Thanet accompanied by two technicians.

According to the estate manager Antony Kerwin, who currently grows potatoes, wheat and rape there, they were looking for 20 hectares on which to plant vines as well as somewhere they could hold tastings and market their label.

"They loved the chalky soil and the fact that we are close to the Channel tunnel," said Mr Kerwin. "I think they also liked the fact that because we are near the sea we don't suffer as many frosts as Canterbury."

But Mr Kerwin thinks she may have been put off by the Waterloo Tower, a red-brick folly built by the estate's original owner, Jonathan Powell Powell.

"I made several jokes about it," said Mr Kerwin. "Normally, I have found the French have a good sense of humour but the madame didn't laugh. I've since heard she found somewhere closer to London."

Duval-Leroy refused to confirm or deny the rumour yesterday, saying that it was a "matter for madame".

Last year French houses made similar approaches to Chapel Down Wines in Tenterden, Kent, and the Ridgeview Wine estate in Ditchling Common, east Sussex.

Their interest coincided with a poor 2003 French vintage - due to the unusually cold spring that year followed by the blisteringly hot summer - and the impressive performance of English sparking whites in blind tastings.

Chapel Down's Pinot Reserve beat several French champagnes to win the gold medal at last year's International Wine Challenge Awards and in a blind tasting organised by Which? magazine in 2002, sparkling wines from Sussex winemakers Nyetimber and Ridgeview and Chapel Down beat a Premier Cru champagne into fourth place.

According to Frazer Thompson, managing director of Chapel Down, the performance of English sparkling wines should not be a surprise. The Sussex and Kent coasts are only 80 miles north of Champagne. The geology of the chalk sub-soil and the aspect of the south-facing slopes is almost identical.

At first, Mr Frazer said, he and other English wine makers were flattered by the French interest. But Chapel Down, now part of the English Wines Group, decided they could do just as well on their own.

The group has about 10 hectares of vines under cultivation at Tenterden and nearby Lamberhurst and has contracted with a farmer next door to the Quex estate for an additional 40 hectares. By sub-contracting with local farmers, Mr Frazer said the aim was to have 405 hectares under cultivation in the next few years.

"Why should we help the French when we are already producing better champagne on our own?" he said. "We have exactly the same soil conditions and thanks to global warming the climate is actually better. The only difference is I'm not allowed to call our wines champagne."

Depending on the yield, weather and the quality of the grapes there was no reason why English farmers could not expect yields of between £500 and £2,000 per quarter hectare said Mr Frazer.

"It's got to be better than growing cauliflower," he said.

Mike Roberts, owner of Ridgeview Wines, a six-hectare estate 10 miles north of Ditchling Beacon, the highest point on the Sussex Downs, said a number of French champagne houses owned vineyards in California and investing in the UK would be a logical extension of their business.

Mr Roberts, who also heads the English Wine Producers Association, said his firm had been approached by a French house recently, "but I can't give you any more information."

Like other Sussex producers, Ridgeview produces sparkling wines from clones of French champagne rootstocks.

Mr Roberts said he was not surprised by rumours that a French champagne house had already bought land in the south-east of England.

But Mr Frazer said the rules of the Comité meant the French could not describe the products of their English vines as champagne.

"At every English sporting event from Wimbledon to Ascot we toast the victors with French champagne," he said. "We'll probably be toasting the anniversary of our victory at Trafalgar this summer with French brands, too. It really gets my goat.