Forget champers... try a drop of Sussex: Drinks industry chiefs looking to give English sparkling wine a new name

  • Only sparkling wine made in Reims, France can be called champagne
  • Less 'wordy' ideas for English sparkling wine are Merret, Albion or Britagne

By Daily Mail Reporter

Published: 18:00 EST, 7 June 2014 | Updated: 18:00 EST, 7 June 2014

Ignore the champagne and crack open a bottle of White Cliffs or Sussex instead.

That’s the future hoped for by drinks industry chiefs, who are looking to give English sparkling wine a name that’s, well, a little more sparkling.

Although our award-winning bubbly tastes, looks and smells like champagne, European rules say only sparkling wine made around the French city of Reims can use the name.

Less 'wordy' name suggestions for English sparkling wine include Merret, Albion or Britagne

Less 'wordy' name suggestions for English sparkling wine include Merret, Albion or Britagne

Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has said the term ‘sparkling wine’, is too wordy.

The Duchess of Cornwall claimed last year that  the name should ‘have something with depth’.

One idea is Merret, after the 17th Century scientist Christopher Merret, who made champagne decades before the Benedictine monk Dom Perignon.

 

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Albion, the ancient name for Great Britain, and Britagne have also been suggested.

But Mark Driver, of the Rathfinny Estate in Alfriston, East Sussex, said: ‘We intend to stick to the geographical designation.

'In 10 years’ time, people will ask  for a glass of Sussex not champagne. I want people to ask for Rathfinny like they ask for a Bollinger.’