News – Page 6 – Coates and Seely

Matthew Jukes wine review: Highlights from Wine GB’s tasting

It is hugely exciting to report that Coates & Seely has upgraded its old, clear glass bottles to beautiful green glass bottles for this wine and I hope that everyone else who is still using these evil clear containers will follow suit. I am also cheered by the continued presence of the term ‘Britagne’ on the label and capsule of this sleek beauty, which I have always thought rather clever.

The reason for this wine’s inclusion in this trailblazer piece is the immediacy and deliciousness of its aroma and flavour. Coates & Seely started off life making rather backward wines but how things have changed. This spectacular rosé trumpets every single molecule of its 80% Pinot noir, 20% Pinot meunier ingredients and it does so with a not inconsiderable dash of glamour and vitality.

This experience comes at a remarkably reasonable price tag and I sense that if more English rosés can hit the mark like Coates & Seely’s wine does with effortless ease, then pink wines from the other side of the Channel will very swiftly fall from favour.

Matthew Jukes wine review: Highlights from WineGB’s tasting

Grand National winner will celebrate with English sparkling wine instead of French Champagne for first time in horse race’s 172-year history

Mail Online: Dianna Apen-Sadler

Coates & Seely English sparkling wine has secured a deal with The Jockey Club
Will see the bubbly served across 14 of their UK racecourses, including Aintree
Racegoers are expected to pop around 8,000 bottles of fizz over three days

This year’s Grand National winner will celebrate with English bubbly instead of French Champagne for the first time in the horse race’s 172-year history.

The winning jockey will enjoy a glass of Coates & Seely English sparkling wine after the brand secured a three-year deal with The Jockey Club who own the famous Aintree racecourse.

As well as being served in the owners and trainers enclosure, the sparkling wine will also be available to racegoers as they cheer on horses.

Racegoers are expected to down an estimated 300,000 pints and pop 8,000 bottles of fizz, all cooled down by a whopping 1,813,600 ice cubes.

This year’s Grand National winner will celebrate with English sparkling wine instead of French Champagne for the first time in the horse race’s 172-year history (pictured: Davy Russell, last year’s winner)

Paul Fisher, Chief Executive of Jockey Club Racecourses, said: ‘It’s great to be working with Coates & Seely and we’re really looking forward to a prosperous partnership over the next three years.

Coates & Seely (pictured: their English sparkling wine) secured a three-year deal with The Jockey Club who own the famous Aintree racecourse

‘We look to support British producers on our menus and wine lists wherever we can and I’m sure our racegoers will be impressed with this sparkling wine.’

Demand for home-grown wines has soared in recent years, with last summer’s heatwave leading to a record grape harvest and a vintage year for English and Welsh wine.

Last year the Denbies Chalk Valley Sparkling Brut NV, from Surrey, beat out French an Italian rivals in a taste test by the consumer group Which?

Ridgeview, which makes sparkling wine in East Sussex, was also named Winemaker of the Year in the International Wine & Spirit Competition for 2018.

It is expected that more than 150,000 people will visit the Aintree racetrack over the three days of the popular jump festival.

It’s claimed the National’s recent switch to ITV1 from Channel 4 will also see one in four Brits place a bet along with 600 million viewers worldwide, with a staggering £650million wagered.

Coates & Seeley wines will be served across 14 of the 15 racecourses The Jockey Club own.

Nicholas Coates and Christian Seely, co-founders of Coates & Seely, added: ‘We are delighted to have been appointed an Official Partner by the Jockey Club, which is a major accolade for our young brand.

‘There are many qualities that connect fine wine with racing – not least the endless pursuit of form and quality and a love of celebration – and we greatly look forward to developing our activities across this wonderful portfolio of racecourses.’

The Epsom Derby

The Epsom Derby is the ‘Blue Riband’ of British flat racing. Named after the 12th Earl of Derby and first run in 1780, it is now Britain’s richest horse race and the most prestigious of the five classics.

The 2019 Epsom Derby was the 240th running of the race and was won in thrilling style by Coolmore Stud’s bay colt Anthony Van Dyck, ridden by Seamie Heffernan and trained by Aidan O’Brien. The winning owner,jockey and trainer and their families celebrated afterwards with Coates & Seely, thanks to the Jockey Club’s Winning Connections hospitality, and ‘Albion’, the Coates & Seely vintage coach, hosted a stream of thirsty press and Jockey Club guests throughout the day in what is one of the country’s most iconic and best-loved sporting events.

From the Grand National to the Boat Race, how English fizz is taking over champagne as the toast of the season

The Telegraph: Victoria Moore, April 2nd 2019

And they’re off! The Grand National takes place on Saturday.The world’s most famous steeplechase is followed by an international audience of over 600 million people, as well as the thousands who gather at Aintree to watch 40 horses and jockeys tackling this testing course.

This year, for the first time in the race’s 180-year history, the winner will celebrate with a glass not of champagne but of Coates & Seely English sparkling wine.

As well as being served in the owners and trainers enclosure, Coates & Seely English sparkling wine will also be available to race-goers so they can enjoy an elegant glass (or three) as they cheer on horses.

The news marks a big move into the very fabric of English society for the Hampshire-based producer, and is part of a new three-year partnership that will see it become the only English sparkling wine served at 14 of The Jockey Club’s 15 race-courses, including Epsom Downs and Newmarket (a rival English sparkling wine, Nyetimber, currently holds the pouring rights at Cheltenham).

I understand that competition to snag the deal was extremely fierce, as English wine producers jockey for position (forgive the pun) and, slowly but surely, lay claim to the British season: Chapel Down is already an official partner to the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race; while Nyetimber is served at Glyndebourne as well as being an official supporter of the Lawn Tennis Association.

Like most of the new generation of successful English sparkling wines, Coates & Seely is made from the champagne grapes chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. The company was founded in 2008 by two old friends and INSEAD alumni, Nick Coates and Christian Seely.

Coates had recently retired from a career in the City. Seely was – and still is – Managing Director of AXA Millésimes, a role that puts him in charge of prestigious wine estates such as Chateau Pichon Baron in Bordeaux and Quinta do Noval in Portugal’s Douro Valley.

Last week I met up with Coates and Seely to trundle through the streets of London in “Albion” – a 1952 British Leyland Coach painstakingly restored and liveried in British racing green. Albion will also be attending Jockey Club racecourses throughout the summer, and serving Coates & Seely sparkling wine from a small bar inside.

It’s a lovely old thing – though I was surprised to see the driver taking a large branch from the Belgrave Square pavement and dipping it into the tank to check we had enough petrol to make it to Pall Mall. But as with all the best British things it would be a very big mistake to assume that charm equates to lack of competitive edge.

“The main thing – the only thing – I learnt in all these vineyards,” said Seely, “was that any great wine expresses a sense of place and I became obsessed with the idea of finding chalky land in the south of England where it might be possible to make great wine. The wines we have begun to make show that it’s possible.”

A fair observation, and if you do happen to be at Aintree (or near a branch of Lea & Sandeman) this weekend then I particularly commend the Coates & Seely Sparkling Rosé NV.

The Four Seasons Hampshire

Four Seasons executives from around the world came to Hampshire in May for their annual conference and were treated not only to the 18th century splendour of Dogsmerfield Park, the group’s Hampshire landmark, but to an array of classic British experiences, ranging from hunting packs, croquet duels and classic British vehicles in the form of Coates & Seely’s ‘Albion’.

We are proud of our listings at the Four Seasons, and particularly at our listing in the wonderful ‘Wild Carrot’ restaurant at Dogmersfiled, and were delighted to represent our country to their group of global executives with our English Sparkling wines and our vintage British coach…

King’s Presence Chamber Dinner at Hampton Court Palace

Coates & Seely were delighted to be served at a dinner in the Great Hall of Hampton Court Palace to thank some of the leading benefactors to Historic Royal Palaces.

Drinks were served in the Privy Garden – a perfect restoration of William III’s original garden of 1702 – after which guests proceeded to dinner in the Great Hall. Lying at the heart of the Tudor Palace and towering above the surrounding buildings, the Great Hall was designed to impress and to proclaim Henry VIII’s power and magnificence. By the time building started in 1533, Henry had divorced his first wife Katherine of Aragon and was married to his second, Anne Boleyn. Seventy years later, in the reign of James I, Shakespeare and his company of players performed A Midsummer Night’s Dream in the Great Hall. Other historic events at the Palace are too numerous to mention.

The Palace stands as a remarkable repository of British royal history and we were honoured to be present there and to have our wines served.