Sorry Stewart, not on red wine again but nevertheless a very interesting thread. I hear what you say Giles and also understand it. I've also been involved with wines and spirits for most of my career and as such I know that many in the wine industry are very much against chaptalisation.
With the advent of global warming and higher temperatures in wine growing areas both in Europe and the New World, the justification for chaptalisation is not really there, apart from very exceptional circumstances. In fact most if not all of the champagne houses have purchased land in Kent to hedge against the fact that it may become too hot in champagne at some time in the future. As I mentioned earlier Jerome Prevost is making wine as far north as Gueux without sugar by concentrating on the vineyard, not the cellar
English sparkling wine is no longer a joke partly due to this climatic change and marques such as Nyetimber have shown what is possible here. Whether they have to chapatilise is a moot point and I don't know the answer never having been involved in English wine? 😀
