Where to get more affordable English sparkling wine

Because I’m a freelance writer and not a hedge fund manager, I’m always very pleased when I find a way to enjoy the things I love for a bit less. Take English sparkling wine. Once a prestige product that only in-the-knows could pick up from specialist retailers, it’s now reaching a wider consumer audience than ever thanks to the supermarkets.

Many supermarkets have even developed their own-label English sparkling wines, which they buy in and bottle under their own name. Sometimes they divulge which producer they sourced them from and sometimes they don’t (especially if the brand in question feels that association with a supermarket might cheapen its reputation). Crucially, however, they’re much cheaper than regular English sparklers, which tend to go for at least £30-40.

If you’re confused by those regular prices, I get it. Prosecco, for instance, is made hundreds of miles away, yet you can still get hold of an own-label supermarket bottle for as little as £5, so I can well understand why those premium prices are a bit of a barrier for those who are curious to try the stuff.

English sparkling is grown closer to home, sure, but it is also much more costly to produce, and for all manner of reasons. First, labour costs here are much higher than in many other countries, where in some cases workers are deliberately underpaid. Just last year, for example, an investigation into champagne production found workers being paid way below the French minimum wage, with some even returning home with no money at all.

Then there’s the cost of pretty much everything else. Have you ever bought a house? Lucky you. Now imagine buying one that costs millions and you can’t even live in it. It’s not a sofa from the DFS sale that you have to furnish it with, either, but a €25,000 pneumatic press. And if the land doesn’t come with one, you then have to build a winery, too. In the UK, these things are not generally inherited, as they might be elsewhere, and all are costs that need somehow to be recouped.

But now most supermarkets sell an own-label English sparkler, some of them for as little as £14. So are these cheaper wines lesser in quality? I asked Henry Jeffreys, whose newsletter is often loaded with English wine facts, secrets and hot gossip. (He’s also got a podcast on wine history, if that’s an itch you fancy scratching.) “For some producers, such as Balfour and Denbies, making supermarket wine is part of their business model,” he says. “For others, it’s a way of dealing with overstocks from big vintages such as 2020 or 2023. And when wines are made to a budget like that, they might be made from young vines, non-champagne varieties or spend less time on lees. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are worse, though; they’re just made differently.”

He adds that charmat method wines – also known as tank method, and the same used in prosecco production – are significantly cheaper to produce than traditional champagne method wines. M&S’s Bramble Hill is one that does this method justice: it is exuberant, limey and great fun.

Four bottles of English fizz

Tesco Finest English Sparkling Wine £21, 11.5%. Generous, ripe and brioche-y blend of champagne varieties made by Balfour.

Bowler & Brolly English Sparkling Wine £17.99 Aldi, 12%. I’m told the producer for this cuvée changes every so often, but it’s still outrageous value.

Morrisons The Best English Sparkling Wine £24, 12%. Surprisingly rich, and rumoured to be made by a very prestigious winemaker.

M&S Bramble Hill English Sparkling £14.15 Ocado, 11%. Easy-going and citrussy charmat method-made fizz, hence the low price.