Asda’s Asquith Gardens English sparkling is the best tasting fizzy wine around to help celebrate The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Bank Holiday celebrations. And at just £7.49 bottle, when you combine the half-price Roll Back and the simultaneous Buy 6 bottles Save 25% offer, this aged traditional sparkling is great value.
Made in the same way as other traditional sparkling wines that add the bubbles in a second-time around fermentation in the wine bottle, this English sparkling tastes very much like quality Champagnes and Spanish Cavas with complex flavours of digestive biscuit, floral honey and a touch of breakfast Seville orange marmalade.
Made from the same mix of grape varieties as used to make Champagne, the Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier are as much at home growing in southern England as they are in the northern French region of Champagne. But where exactly these English grapes are grown is a bit of mystery.
The bottle’s label tells us Asquith Gardens was made for Asda by Rolling Hills Ltd, whose name also pops up on some of Morrisons own-label English sparkling wines too. Rolling Hills is not the name of any established English vineyard specialising in sparkling wine and we can only guess which of the main players (Nyetimber, Gusbourne, Ridgeview, Chapel Down) is possibly using some of their aged 5 year-old stock to bottle under the name of what sounds like a tribute to Asda's founding brothers Peter and Fred Asquith, where their surname combined with Associated Dairies formed the new grocery store name of Asda.
Although Asquith Gardens may be mysterious it is very tasty. The mix of buttered apples, crushed digestive biscuits with floral honey and Seville orange marmalade flavours is a great match to many foods, including picnic quiches and chicken in gravy.
In fact the last time I came across such great flavours at such a great price was about ten years ago when Spanish Cavas were still riding high and selling at similar £7-£8 prices before they moved to competing with Italian Prosecco that too often just tastes of lemonade.
But while we wait for Cava to remember that it can make great wine then look to this English sparkling from Asda.
Wineuncorked recommends
Asquith Gardens Traditional English Sparkling
£7.49 Asda (on offer from May 23rd to 6th June 2022 down from £18)
Complex flavours of digestive biscuit, floral honey and a touch of breakfast Seville orange marmalade.
