Some stunning looking bottles are a triumph of marketing over substance (don’t get me started on the Whispering Angel), but this beauty is as gorgeous on the inside as the out. Clearly, I’ve been living under a wine barrel as I’d never heard of Pale Fox … til now! Huge thanks to friends Helen and Chris from two epic London pubs (The Victoria, Paddington and The Admiralty, Trafalgar Square) who very kindly brought us this bottle.
What’s so special? It’s a Prosecco for people who are so over Prosecco! It has all the lightness, and bright acidity of Prosecco with fresh then preserved lemon, and for me a wet stone sub-note … so loads of interesting flavours. And it’s dry! No cloying pear, floral, or that sweet, sickly after taste.
Three clues to how it got to be so good
- Asolo Prosecco – it comes from the smallest of the DOCG areas … the G showing its made to higher minimum quality standards than DOC wines
- 90 days second fermentation – with a standard Prosecco coming in at 30 days this longer time bubbling and then ageing with the yeast cells allows more the complex flavours to develop
- High quality grapes – a smaller quantity of grapes per vine leads to more flavourful wine. Add in discarding sub-standard grapes and the producers are paying serious attention to beginning making the wine with beautiful grapes.
It’s not cheap at between £25 and £30 from the Pale Fox website or ‘leading retailers’! But for a completely different and delicious Prosecco, or a tip top gift … bring on the Pale Fox!