(2021) Until very recently all English sparkling wines were made by the expensive and time-consuming 'traditional method'. That's the method used in Champagne, where the second fermentation is in individual bottles, which are then cellared for 18 months or more before release. Now the charmat, or 'tank' method, is used too, with second fermentation in large steel tanks rather than bottles. It's a much quicker and arguably easier way to make a sparkling wine and the method by which Prosecco is made.

Boco is a charmat wine, composed of 42%  Reichenstiener with equal parts Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. It is frothy and offers aromas of sherbet, lemons and icing sugar. On the palate it is light and very straightforward, a touch of peach and pear fruitiness, and good zesty acidity. It's not a complex wine by any means and is indeed comparable to a good Prosecco. For me that also suggests its price of £26 is rather problematic.

(2020) Henners was founded in East Sussex in 2007, but has since been bought by its distributor, Boutinot. The young winemaker here has worked in California and South Africa, and makes this wine with a proportion of the base wine (10%) fermented in aged oak barrels. The dosage is a moderate 7g/l.  Lovely yeastiness and sweet, ripe fruit in combination. There's a lot of finesse here, the colour pale and straw-gold with aromas the blend light biscuity qualities with succulent orchard fruit.

(2019) The blend here is 50% Chardonnay, 28% Pinot Noir, 11% Pinot Meunier and 11% Pinot Gris, with a dosage of 8g/l. Lemony colour, small bubbles, and plenty of yeasty biscuit and nutty notes, a little bit of a ripe peachy character but much more about orchard fruits and lemon zestiness. The palate is well-balanced and has very good fruit. It is essentially fairly straightforward, but that risks damning with faint praise, because the nutty Cox's pippin fruitiness, sheer lemon acidity and fine length and clarity are all very good indeed and it's a pleasure to drink.