Bethnal Bubbles – Renegade London Wine – London, UK

For decades English sparkling wines didn’t have the greatest of reputations, but in recent years that has really been turning around with some truly interesting wines being made. So on my last trip to England I was on a mission to find a good one and thankfully Renegade did not disappoint with their dry hopped sparkling Seyval Blanc. Yes you read that right, a dry hopped sparkling wine. Thanks to that once you get a good whiff of the aroma of this wine you are pretty quickly greeted by hops. And seeing as they used Citra hops it really does impart a very noticeable citrus character to the wine. Which isn’t just recognizable in the aroma but you also find it being pretty upfront in the taste as well, tasting a bit more lemony to me, but I’d honestly still just characterize it as just ‘citrus’. Along with that though you also get some delicious notes of melon and apple. The whole thing then comes together with this medium, refreshing finish that does have a very slight grassy note (probably from the hops). Now sadly I didn’t have anything to eat with this but I could very easily see it going well with some sort of spicy chicken dish or perhaps even some grilled calamari. In the end I was very impressed with this British sparkling wine and would highly recommend you give it a go if you find yourself in the area.

TLDR Notes: Smell - Citrus, Hops Taste - Citrus, Melon, Apple Finish - Medium, Slightly Grassy, Refreshing Cost - £6.50 a Glass

If you’d like to know more you can check out their site here: Renegade London Wine