To appreciate the zesty, minerally charms of English sparkling wine, you need not be an incurable anglophile. Climate change and an influx of winemaking talent into southern England has enabled the crafting of world-class sparkling wine, with the best versions even rivaling those of Champagne. Mark Oldman has toured the wineries of Southern England extensively and this is his list of the best producers of the English sparkling wine.

Mark Oldman’s 10 Top English Sparkling Wines (in alphabetical order)

Bolney (Sussex)

Breaky Bottom (Sussex)

Chapel Down (Kent)

Coates & Seely (Hampshire)

Gusbourne (Kent)

Hattingley (Hampshire)

Nyetimber (Sussex)

Rathfinny (Sussex)

Ridgeview (Sussex)

Wiston Estate (Sussex)

Where to Find English Sparkling Wine in the US

In the States, a good local wine merchant may stock a producer or two of British bubbly, or you can ask them to order one of the producers listed above. Use the free site Wine-Searcher.com to do specific searches. Several online retailers also stock English sparkling wine, including Wine.com, which currently carries five different producers.

Food to Serve with English Sparkling Wine

In general, English sparkling wine pairs with a multiplicity of foods and dishes. The bubbles and citrusy bite in sparkling wine are virtually Viagra for your appetite. And when the weather is warmer, its lemony zing and foamy fun make it the perfect refresher.

To celebrate King Charles’s coronation, the logical choice is British bubbly with cucumber and other tea sandwiches, scones, and– for an unusual take – toast with marmite, the traditional salty yeast spread. English sparkling wine’s sprightly charms and citric lift are also a natural partner with coronation chicken and coronation quiche.

If there were only one beverage to negate the day’s battles and prime you for the meal ahead, it would be English sparkling wine and other types of bubbly.  Its shimmery appearance, citric snap, and cleansing bubbles wake you up, replenish your soul, and get your drooling for the sustenance ahead.  By itself or with hors d’oeuvres, it is the liquid prelude.

Sparkling wine also makes an apt aperitif because before dinner we often eat salty nibbles, which, in addition to making you thirsty, tend to tame the crackly acidity in bubbly.  Virtually anything edible a bartender slides you – buttered popcorn, salted nuts, tortilla chips, cheese puffs, parmesan bread sticks, potato chips – teams up beautifully with sparkling wine.

Extending the theme of the cardiologically suspect, we arrive at the not-so-sacred altar of fried food. Traditional fish and chips is the logical choice. Or cook up a batch of your dirtiest, greasiest fried calamari, egg rolls, or French fries, and bubbly will whisk away its greasy baggage like a bellhop at the Four Seasons.  You may not want to blow your reserve cuvee on a bucket of KFC, but enlist a basic-level sparkling wine and your palate will be gratified like nothing else.

If your friends question your pre-noon penchant for bubbly, or you have yet to develop one, be advised of the classic match of Champagne with egg dishes.  Champagne’s yeasty bubbliness flatters a fluffy omelet, a savory frittata, or a hollandaise-slathered Eggs Benedict. And is it any wonder that King Charles’s official coronation dish is eggy coronation quiche?

All but the grimmest malcontent would fail to see the beauty of pairing a flute of citrusy English bubbly with seafood of all kinds, from shellfish like shrimp and oysters to richer filets of salmon and swordfish. Did somebody say Dover sole?

Not a sake fan?  You are hereby advised to cross cultures and try bubbly, which seems to me an even better flavor match with Japanese food, touching on almost every category above.  It incorporates seafood (sushi and sashimi), salty food  (soy sauce), fried food (tempura), cream sauces (sauce with spicy tuna roll), and even egg and mushroom dishes (tamago or mushroom rolls, etc).  What better match Japanese cuisine, which revolves around fermented food (soy sauce, miso soup, picked vegetables, the rice vinegar in sushi rice), than English sparkling wine, Champagne, and other traditionally-made bubbly, which itself its twice-fermented and has the yeasty aromas to prove it.

Finally, sparkling wine does back flips for most kinds of cheese, including all manner of English cheddar to fresh, acidic fromage like goat and feta cheese and hard-to-pair gooey types like Brie and Camembert.

To learn more about sparkling wine, and wine in general, see Bevinars’ freshly-squeezed virtual wine classes.