English Sparkling Wine

As we all know, providing good food and drink at the ambassador’s or high commissioner’s Residence is an enduring and important part of good diplomacy. Getting embassy hospitality wrong risks leaving guests disgruntled. As Sir William Harding, a former British Ambassador to Peru and Brazil – and erstwhile Chairman of the UK Government’s Wine Committee – put it when describing how an embassy should entertain effectively: “You want everybody to want to go there, so you have to have the reputation for having good food and plenteous wines”.

Sharing a meal can help unlock tricky negotiations. As the famed French ambassador, Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord, once said, “give me a good chef and I’ll give you good treaties.” ‘Gastrodiplomacy’ remains as relevant as it always has been. And a country’s cuisine is a window through which to understand its culture. If the job of a diplomat is to get under the skin of the society to which they’re posted, what better – and more pleasurable – way of doing so than by enjoying the local food and drink? Happily, the rise of English sparkling wine makes that feel like light work.

For the rise of our home-grown wine – sparkling, still whites, rosés, even reds – is one of the great success stories of British food and drink in recent years. British embassies around the world are increasingly serving it to showcase this exciting, relatively new, product. English wine also occupies an ever-growing proportion of the stocks of the Government Wine Cellar, buried deep underneath Lancaster House on the Mall. The British Government established the cellar in 1908 to provide for international conferences and except for a brief hiatus where the bottles were taken to a rural location for safekeeping during World War II, it has been in its current location since 1922.

There are so many good options to choose from. Nyetimber, Gusbourne, Balfour, Hattingley Valley, Rathfinny, Hambledon, Nutbourne. The list goes on. And it helps of course to have the royal seal of approval. Cornwall’s Camel Valley became the first English wine label to secure royal warrants from the King and Queen earlier this year. Sussex’s Chapel Down saw their Rosé Brut enjoyed at The Prince and Princess of Wales’s wedding and, earlier this month, the Chapel Down Grand Reserve 2018 was served at the State Banquet for the Amir of Qatar. Ridgeview has been served to President Obama (in 2011) and President Xi (in 2015).

If the job of a diplomat is to get under the skin of the society to which they’re posted, what better – and more pleasurable – way of doing so than by enjoying the local food and drink?

While quantities produced are still relatively small, and the vast majority is therefore consumed here in the UK, the word is very much beginning to get out in foreign markets. As Nicola Bates, CEO of WineGB told me, “English Sparkling Wine exports are going from strength to strength and have doubled from 4 to 8 per cent of overall sales in just two years. We are supplying to over 50 countries, and the UK's ‘gastrodiplomacy’ is an important part of our route to market.”

So, when hosting guests and bubbles are required, you can’t go far wrong popping open a bottle of English sparkling. Doffing your cap to a proud and growing UK industry is always going to go down well with British guests. And there is very good reason everyone is so effervescent about this country’s wine potential: after all, English sparkling wines now even regularly beat French champagnes in blind tastings.

The famed epicure Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin once said: “Burgundy makes you think of silly things; Bordeaux makes you talk about them, and Champagne makes you do them.” Not exactly ideal for a diplomatic soirée. English sparkling wine, on the other hand, might be just the thing you’re looking for.

Ameer Kotecha is a British diplomat and author of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II’s official Platinum Jubilee Cookbook