Digby Fine English; England’s first sparkling wine negociant epitomises all that is great about our green and pleasant land; it is of the highest quality as its multitude of awards and accolades will attest to, it is a wonderfully eccentric brand named after Kenelm Digby; Englishman, philosopher, pirate, inventor of the wine bottle and all round good sport. Digby places itself firmly as a lifestyle brand for those who enjoy the finest things in life, but don’t take themselves too seriously.
It was this desire to put wine back into context; to consider when you would be drinking it, with whom and of course to make sure you cut a dashing figure while you are doing so, that made a collaboration with the equally English, equally premium and equally eccentric Savile Row tailor Cad & the Dandy such an obvious fit.
Their new relationship was aired at the London Wine Trade Fair where, for one hour as Digby presented their new Brut NV to London’s finest buyers, each lucky man and woman who tasted the sparkling nectar was measured up for a bespoke jacket. A name was picked at random from a hat and the winner was Xavier Rousset, sommelier at the Dorcester Collection’s Coworth Park, a stunning 5* hotel that is so imbued with the history and horses of Ascot that you couldn’t find a more fitting benefactor.
Xavier has been measured, chalked and pinned and is now the proud owner of a stunningly cut navy blue suit jacket. In celebration Coworth Park, a hotel which, until now, has always offered Champagne by the glass to their discerning clientele with their afternoon tea over-looking the meadow bedecked with wild flowers. However, this summer sees the four pillars of England’s society coming together, I am not talking about freedom of speech or the monarchy, but fine English fizz, fine english tea in the finest English setting and a finely cut blazer, for Digby’s Leander Pink Brut NV is now being served with tea on the terrace, by Xavier himself if you are lucky.
The wonderful English connections do not stop there however, for the Leander Pink is so named as it supports the Leander Club, the rowing club responsible for training and supporting our British rowing hopefuls on their way to the Olympics.
So if you find yourself near Coworth Park, pop in for a glass of England’s finest pink fizz, take in the beauty of the English countryside and as you do, in the words of Digby Fine English raise ‘a toast to past and present, to modesty and refinement, to foibles and follies, to courage and curiosity, to adventure and abandon, to science and satire, to bishops and brigands, to green and pleasant. To England’
