ENGLAND 3: Peter Richards MW andSusie Barrie MW offer this contributionfrom the blog on their website,http://winchesterwineschool.comAlbion it is!Back in August we launched acompetition to find a name for Englishsparkling wine. The idea stemmed from thehoo-ha in the media about the proposalsfor the terms ‘Britagne’ and ‘Merret’ to beadopted as generic terms for English fizz inan attempt to rival the power of the name‘Champagne’.We invited readers to suggest a name – or come up withthe best reason not to have one at all.The competition was generously sponsored by ourguest blogger Jonica Fox, who writes regular instalmentsfor us entitled Diary of an English Vineyard. The prize wasa bottle of her debut vintage, a rosé English sparkling winenamed Cuvée No 1.We were delighted with not only the number but also theinspired nature of many entries, with some truly original andimaginative thinking taking place – as well as a bit of fun,and rightly so. Our thanks to all who took part.Below Jonica names not just one but two worthy winners.Congratulations to them – and happy drinking. Who knows,they may even find their name up in lights at some stage inthe future…The winners (by Jonica)At the height of the summer we asked you to suggest agood name for English sparkling wine, something that couldstand beside ‘Champagne’ as an evocative descriptor of thevery best English bubbly.We were after something uniquelyEnglish that would just trip off the tongue.We tested entries by asking each other,‘would you treat your favourite persona lovely glass of…’? We had a greatresponse, for which many thanks toeveryone who took part.We had some very clever ideas, fromLuke’s MV (from Micans Vinum: elegantLatin for ‘sparkling wine’) to Jacquie’sexpressive Verve, bursting with joie-devivreand a sly nod to Veuve Cliquot.Peter, Susie and I have been soimpressed by the good ideas putforward that is has been a genuinelytough call to pick a winner. So toughin fact that instead of just one winner,we’ve decided to award a second bottleof Rosé English Sparkling Wine from ourfirst 2009 vintage, the delicious Cuvée No 1 (pictured left).Firstly, congratulations to Dominic from Hampshire forAlbion, our star winner. What could be more English! Peterwas particularly taken with the fact that the origin of this OldEnglish word is thought to derive from the whiteness of thecliffs of Dover, which bedrock is the key to quality in manya fine English fizz – hence a very apt term in this context.Congratulations also to John from Sussex for Celebritain…A great idea especially with the Olympics on the horizon.Albion and Celebritain just outgunned Stephen, whowrote the best defence of ‘no name needed’. It’s worthnoting that many well argued responses took this line.As for the entertaining non-winners, Will and Charlie hitus with BritPop and we also had a BritFizz. Peter muttereddarkly about both being ‘a bit Eurovision’.The last word?From Marcus who has been following the tweets – andwrote a witty email about Perfizzious Albion.And a response from Stephen Skelton: Albion won’t catchon – too perfidious and like an albatross around the necklabel of Britpop.Fourth European Wine Bloggers’ ConferenceTales for bloggersThe fourth annual European Wine Bloggers Conferencewas held in Brescia, Italy, from the 14 th to 16 th Octoberwith 216 attending from more than 30 countries aroundthe world. Apparently nearly 300 people applied toattend but space limited the numbers. Franciacortawas the main sponsor while other sponsors includedWines of Chile, the Austrian Marketing Board, theChianti Classico Consorzio, Harpers wines and spiritsmagazine and Adegga.The first conference was held in Rioja in 2008 when50 attended. Lisbon and Vienna were the venues in2009 and 2010 respectively.The theme of this year’s conference was storytellingwith George Taber, author of The Judgment of Parisand To Cork or Not To Cork, the keynote speaker. Otherspeakers included Evan Dawson (author of Summerin a Glass), Paolo Casalis (Italian filmmaker), EmilyTroutman (photographer) and Jeremy Parzen (http://dobianchi.com/).The conference included day trips on the Sundayto various destinations, Franciacorta, Alto Adige andSoave, as well as three-day post-conference tripsto ChiantiClassico andFruili.The venuefor the fifthedition will beannouncedon 28 thNovember onwww.vrazon.com.<strong>Circle</strong> <strong>Update</strong> October 2011 20
Members’world-widewanderings 2:Steven MorrisPhotos from a promo Stevenmade for Wine Australia. Go tohttp://youtu.be/oukDaU5SOdQto watch the video on YouTube.<strong>Circle</strong> <strong>Update</strong> October 2011 21
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