Bringing the Merret back to the UK with Ridgeview Wine Estate
Popping the cork on a bottle of 'champers' for a special occasion is an established tradition here in the UK - and in recent years many people have opted to replace the champagne for a cava or prosecco, with a combination of price vs taste dominating buying decisions.
Champagne is simply sparkling wine, and like any good sparkling wine, after primary fermentation, blending and bottling, a second alcoholic fermentation occurs in the bottle. 
It is believed by many that the 'méthode champenoise' had its origins firmly rooted in England. Englishman Christopher Merret presented a paper to the Royal Society in London in 1662, documenting the process of making traditional method sparkling wines - thirty years before the technique was documented in Champagne.
Ridgeview Wine Estate, founded two decades ago by Mike and Christine Roberts, dedicated to producing world class sparkling wine in the South Downs of England, is a family business whose trademark MERRET is used in honour of Christopher Merret.
Thanks to Ridgeview Wine Estate we can combine price and taste as well as buying British, whilst supporting a home-grown sparkling wine - or Merret.
With 100% traceability and every bottle coded, Ridgeview are producing a stunning collection of merrets to rival other sparkling wine regions around the world.
We spent an afternoon taking a tour of the vineyard and got to sample a selection of their merrets, discovering the highest quality of sparkling wines at very affordable prices.
Their Grosvenor Blanc de Blancs is clean, crisp and perfectly balanced. Lighter on taste than their other offerings but certainly the one to choose if your palate rejects the sweeter, heavier merrets. Perfect to drink alone or with light bites.
Their signature Bloomsbury is a Chardonnay dominated blend that has a lot more body and a warmer all round finish than the Grosvenor but is a lot deeper in flavour.
For full on flavour and one that reminds us most of a classic Champagne taste is the Knightsbridge. A blend of only red grapes (Pinot Noir & Meunier) this full bodied merret would suit a heavier cuisine, or compliment a bowl of ripe strawberries to perfection.
Ridgeview also produce a Chardonnay dominant Rosé. I am not particularly fond of pink wines but can see the appeal of this salmon coloured merret and it would certainly suit as a bottle to 'pop' on Valentine's Day. The Fitzrovia was also chosen by Buckingham Palace as Her Majesty The Queen served Ridgeview Fitzrovia Sparkling Rosé 2004 at the state dinner to honour the visit of President Barack Obama.
The Ridgeview tasting room is open to the public for drop in sales and tastings throughout the year and they host a number of tasting and tour events. This award winning vineyard is definitely worth a visit, where you will not only get to taste some of the divine merrets they have on offer, you will also learn about the process of wine productions - from the start of growing to the end of line packaged bottles.
In the future, ordering a bottle of Merret will be as commonplace as calling for the 'champers' - but with a touch more class.
For more information visit www.ridgeview.co.uk