Life feels sunnier with a glass of sparkling rosé in hand. Maybe it’s the rosy glow, maybe it’s the dancing bubbles, maybe it’s the crisp summer fruit flavours. For us, more than any other wine it’s the taste of summer, which is why we’ve made July our dedicated Month of Rosé. There’s no better time to celebrate a true icon of English winemaking: the inimitable Ridgeview Fitzrovia Rosé NV.
Fitzrovia NV is our signature sparkling rosé. NV stands for non-vintage, which means we produce it every year from wines of different vintages. Like all our NV wines, it’s made to a house style. The goal is reliably brilliant and brilliantly reliable consistency in every bottle, and Fitzrovia delivers in abundance.
In trademark Ridgeview style, Fitzrovia is a Classic Method sparkling wine. It’s produced by blending an assortment of still ‘base wines’ in just the right proportions, then bottling the blend with a small dose of yeast and allowing the second fizz-imparting fermentation to take place in bottle.
How do we decide on the blend? There’s no fixed recipe, since we’re working with a different set of base wines every time. So with each release, we trial, taste and tinker with the blend until it fits the Fitzrovia profile.
One constant is that the blend will always include a combination of beautifully ripe Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes grown in our estate vineyard and by select partner growers. Another is that the gorgeous salmon-pink hue comes from the addition of a perfectly-judged fraction of red Pinot Noir base wine.
Shop Fitzrovia RoséWe like to describe the appeal of Fitzrovia as timeless. As Ridgeview Winemaker Jack Mankin explains, “partly this is down to its consistency of quality, but also I think it’s so popular because it’s a fun wine you can drink on any occasion. It’s very versatile, perfect for sipping on its own, but also the high proportion of Chardonnay in the blend lends a lot of freshness, which means it pairs really well with a wide range of foods”.
The timeless appeal also stems from Fitzrovia’s long and proud heritage. It’s one of the original English sparkling rosés, first made in 2002 and produced every single year since. We’ve had plenty of time to perfect the formula, and we’re sure our Fitzrovia fans will agree we have! We’re especially proud to note that those fans include the Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth II served Fitzrovia to Barack Obama at a Buckingham Palace State Banquet in 2011.
Jack mentions versatility, and this is what makes Fitzrovia such a food-friendly wine. It pairs brilliantly with so many summer staples: when the sun’s out, there’s never a bad moment during a meal to open a bottle.
We love Fitzrovia with fresh seafood starters, Asian-inspired fish dishes, fruit-forward desserts like summer pudding or Eton Mess, and a Sussex cheeseboard.
Or, to celebrate the very best of the British summer, take a chilled bottle to the beach and enjoy with fish and chips!
With so many sparkling rosés to choose from this summer, what makes Fitzrovia stand out from the crowd? First and foremost, we believe its enduring popularity lies in the exquisite balance of lively flavours.
But more than that, it’s a genuine pioneer wine: the English sparkling rosé all others are still judged against, more than 20 years after the first bottle was produced.
The pink Proseccos of this world will come and go. With every sip of Fitzrovia you take, you’re tasting a little piece of English wine history. For that reason as much as any other, Fitzrovia will be adding the sparkle to celebratory moments big and small for many summers to come.
Shop Fitzrovia RoséTour our beautiful estate in the Sussex countryside and try a selection of our award-winning English sparkling wines. And, there is no better way to round off your experience than a visit to our restaurant, The Rows & Vine.
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