Rule Britagne? The new face of English wine

By: Chris Mercer - 5 July 2011 15:26

Can we call off the search for a generic name for English sparkling wines? Don't be too hasty.

Wine industry deity Christian Seely, one half of producer Coates & Seely, thinks that all English wine producers should adopt the name "Britagne" to define their wines as one category.

"We don’t believe that “English Sparkling Wine” or “Quality Sparkling Wine” does our product justice – it’s too literal and bland," Seely was quoted as telling the Telegraph newspaper.

He's got a point. But, 'Britagne'? Really? Isn't that a bit, well, French-sounding for the English wine industry?

Apparently, Seely said that this is intentional.

Ah, that's ok then.

By a similar token, perhaps the Californians should have called their most famous wine region 'Napali Valley' (instead of the rather mundane 'Napa Valley'), in honour of 'Old World' Italian winemaking.