As promised, Alty Fizz Festival certainly cheered up a cold dark weekend. Altrincham Town Hall was lit brightly and filled with the sounds of corks popping, professionals slurping and drinkers tasting.
As a latecomer on the Sunday, I was playing catch up – but still thankfully in time enjoy plenty of fizz to tempt my palate and to add my votes for the awards also taking place that evening.
Supplies were still plentiful, and the range on offer was simply more than this fizz drinker could manage. In truth if would have taken me all afternoon to make my way through everything on offer, and my time was limited. So I threw myself in with joyful abandon.
There was, as you’d expect, a little bit for everyone. Stunning little gift sets from Fizz Guru – little bottles make perfect stocking fillers (and are incredibly handy if you’re stuck with a secret santa this year).
Big brand Laurent Perrier had a beautiful cage for their Rose – taking the gift bag somewhere else entirely.
And Booze & Burn had some deliciously scented candles made using fizz bottles – I must admit to having my eye on a Gusbourne labelled candle myself, reminding me of one of my first forays into English fizz.
Stand outs of those I sampled were plentiful – including one that might surprise you.
‘Skinny’ Rose.
As you’d expect, no, not for the name. Not even for the less than 300 calories per bottle. More for the flavour. It’s almost twin, the Tribbaut Rose de Reserve Premier Cru has the sugar added that you’d expect from this style of wine, whereas the ‘Skinny’ Rose doesn’t. What you lose is a rich sweetness, but what you gain is lighter floral notes that seem lost with the sugar addition.
Whether 275 per bottle is worth the extra £5 a bottle, I’m not sure, but the difference in flavour was certainly interesting.
A fizzy red caught my eye from Odd Bins. The Peter Lehmann Black Queen Shiraz. Rich – with lots of cherry and dark fruity, almost like a fizzy Ribena (yes I know that’s doing the wine a bit of a disfavour, but that big blackcurrant hit was there), if you have a sweet tooth and want something different from your fizz, this was definitely it.
C&O Wines also had a great selection – including some beauties from Stellenbosch. I had to admit (even at the table, yes I’m that honest) I’m going through a bit of a Stellenbosch phase. I find the wines from that region delightful. So much so that there’s a stash of reds at home that I originally selected from the region alone.
Sadly my late arrival left only time for two more stops.
Hush Heath are based on an estate in Kent and produce a range of wines, including their award winning Rose – which was divine, as were the others in the range, that I hurriedly sampled. I’ll have to find a way of rectifying this and spending more time with their wines in the future.
And my final stop, though they were all but packing up, was with the lovely Con Gusto – where I sampled fizz and we chatted, er, gin.
I know.
Of course the best bit was yet to come. The awards. One for Best Champagne, one for Best Sparkling Wine (UK) and one for Best Sparkling Wine (Rest of World).
And while we nibbled on canapes and sipped leftover fizz, the winners were announced. And I was disappointed not to have made it to the stands of two:
Champagne Thienot won Best Champagne.
Hush Heath won Best Sparkling Wine (UK)
And Red Squirrel won Best Sparling Wine (Rest of the World).
As for me? I learned not to be late next time!