Gospel Green sparkling cider: a fine tipple for a summer Ploughman’s

Gospel Green, The Original Cyder Brut, Hampshire. About £13, HawkinsBros.co.uk; TaurusWines.co.uk; TheGeneralWine.co.uk; CharliesFarmshop.co.uk; LodsworthLarder.com; CraftyPintShop.co.uk; Harveys.org.uk; Middlefarm.com; QuaffWine.com.

I started my life in the wine trade more than 30 years ago at the Barnes Wine Shop in southwest London. A rather eccentric chap called James Lane used to pop in every so often with his stunning Gospel Green cheese for us to taste. I am not sure I ate any other cheese for nearly two years!

A few years later James and his wife Cathy started producing Gospel Green sparkling cider, made in the Champagne/traditional method. I am not sure what happened to their very fine cheese, but James’s cider is still my all-time favourite.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

After 24 years, in 2015, James and Cathy decided to hang up their aprons only to find a keen buyer cruising through their cellar door! James still consults to his erstwhile cider company, which is now owned by none other than Brock Bergius. Brock is an experienced drinks-industry fellow and he is also a long-time fan of this elite, hand-crafted cider.

Painstakingly produced from hand-picked apples taken from the Blackmoor Estate in Hampshire, this is the only apple-based drink on the planet to pass my sky-high standards for inclusion in this wine-soaked column.

It is also the finest summer tipple with a top level Ploughman’s lunch. I will leave it to you to find a replacement for the long-lost Gospel Green cheese!

• Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition’s Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).