I Made Wine Battered Fish and Chips

Name: I Made Wine Battered Fish and Chips
Uploaded: 2026-10-07T12:22:32.764Z
Duration: 12 min 13 s
Channel: World of Fine Wines

World of Fine Wines

6 Video Views·Oct 7, 2026

I wanted to settle the debate once and for all: who does sparkling wine better - the Brits or the French?

And what better way to conduct such a serious piece of wine research than by turning two of the world’s finest sparkling wines into fish and chip batter?

Fred put my questionable chef skills to the test with a little help from Brighton’s oldest fish and chip shop. We taste them, cook with them and make a royal mess in the process.
But which makes the crispiest, poshest and juiciest battered fish - English sparkling wine or Champagne?

There’s only one sensible way to find out… 🍾🐟🍟

I'm in Brighton to see whether I can make wine-battered fish and chips, but who does it better? The English 10.86, Nye Timber or the French Dom Perignon 2017. It's £200 versus £145 and fish and chips and seagulls. Let's go. It smells really yeasty. Look at that. First up, Nye Timber 10.86. It's £145 a bottle. It's from very near Brighton. It is unbelievably delicious and we'll give the seagull. Oh, oh, oh, oh, they like it. They like it. They blend the same grapes as Dom Perignon, so Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier. Chardonnay gives it the richness and the Pinots give it the sort of red apple bit. But ---- my bed, it's got biscuits in too. How do they get that in there? Right. Cheers, lads. Oh, that is absolutely delicious. Stop it. This has got literally peaches and cream. It's got the juiciness, the freshness. It's got lemon, peaches and cream. What more do you want? And now the Dom Perignon. So this was made famous by the monk Dom Perignon. This was made famous because 1086 is the day that Nijtimber enters the Doomsday Book. It's Moët & Hennessy's Prestige Cuvée and it smells a little bit more appley than the Nijtimber. The Nijtimber is a bit more biscuity. I like it. That's a little bit richer and a little bit nuttier and that's a little bit fruitier. We are about to go and cook some fish and chips. But if you want round one, the Battle of Hastings, who's winning? Honestly, it's Nijtimber 1086. That is so, so delicious. What's going to make the best fish and chips? Let's get cooking. What better place for an England versus France big battle than the oldest fish and chip shop in Brighton? It's Bartley's. Hello. Are you Bing? Tom. Bing. Nice to meet you. So nice to meet you. Jacket. Chef's jacket. You are chef now today. So Bing, is this the oldest fish and chip shop in Brighton? It is. A hundred years this year. To celebrate the hundred years, we do fish and chips for just one pound. What? Yes. I'm sorry you missed out. Oh Bing, look what I've got for me hair. Is this good? Yes. Very good. Is that what we've got to have it on? Perfect. Let me bring to you another chef. Excuse me. Oh, hello. Hello. This is Tom. Virgil, I'm Tom. Wonderful to meet you. The best of France versus the best of England. So Virgil, I've got Dom Perignon 2017. That's 210 pounds worth of champagne. I know. And then we've got Nightimber, which is near here. Their prestige cuvee, 145 quid. What is the best fish we could cook with these two? We've got to make cod. We've got to do cod. Here they are Virgil. Let's play Dom Perignon, Nightimber meets cod and Virgil and Tom in Brighton. Let's go. Snappy title. Where do we start? Well, we start with the flour. I reckon we'll start off with this for now. Yeah. Shake, rattle and roll. All we need is wine. So we're going to do two different flours, are we? One English and one, put the French in the ---- bowl. Yeah. There we go. Okay. So this is our Dom Perignon and this is our Nightimber flour. And in we go with the Nightimber. Virgil, you've done this before, mate. Lots more. Don't be shy. Can you smell that? Yes. It gives it a good smell. It smells so... It smells really yeasty. I want to eat it now. No, no. You drink that. Yes. It's quite thin, isn't it? Shall I get you some more flour? Stay there. We've added too much flour. It's really thin. Shall I try and get it in the bowl? That would be helpful. Okay. Here we go. Virgil, that's great wrist action. My arm's getting tired. Yeah. You do that. Ooh. So what are we trying to get to here? It's getting thicker. So that's really milky, isn't it? Yes. We want little nice little raindroplets of white. Ah, little raindrops. Yeah. Can I have a little pre-taste? No. That's going to be delicious. Right. In we go with the Dom Perignon. Is that enough Dom Perignon? This is a ridiculous game to be playing. Lots and lots. England looks better than France at the moment. Do you want to be a Frenchman for the day? Oui, oui. So this is fish o'clock. How is this different from your normal batter? So the bubbles are going to aerate the batter and then whenever it cooks, we'll get some nice texture to the fish. Okay. This isn't planned, but can we do three fish? Can we do one your normal way? Oh yeah. One English way and one French way. What's in the normal batter? We keep it simple. Just flour and water. So this is the normal batter? This is. Oh. Hello. That's almost a bit creamier, isn't it? It is, yes. Look at the bubbles in my nightimber. Look at the bubbles in the French. Bubbly old French. Okay. Cod. Come on, Fred. We've got to come and see the fish. So that's cod. You can tell by the white line there. Yeah. And then haddock has a black line. Why are we going to do cod today? I think cod tends to have the more neutral flavor. The flavor of the bubbles? Yeah. Should be magic with that. Do we do anything to them here? Here we go. Okay. A nice even coating of the flour. Yeah. We're going to take it over here, our standard English batter. And then what I want from you is you're going to end of the tail for me. Yeah. Bash it up against the side. Yeah. So what we're doing is we're making a thinner layer where the skin is. And then don't be afraid. Just place it in like that and let go. How delicious is that? You can see the bubbles. What we're looking for is more vigorous bubbles and then that's how we'll know it's ready. So we're just going to have a look. And look at all that steam coming out of that. I wonder if I can beat that with my sparkling wine, cod and dom. Cod and dom. Right. In goes the Dom Perignon. Eurgh. Sacré bleu. Perfect. Yeah. We're going to go in now. And then put it skin side down for me. There we go. Okay. So Dom Perignon. Let's not lose sight of this. That's nightimber. Yep. That's Dom Perignon. So are they behaving exactly as you'd imagine they behave? They're not actually. If you look at the nightimber here, it's like floating up much more than usual. Is it? Yeah. Whereas the Dom Perignon is just sinking. I love it when the French sink. Whilst the fish are in the fryer, I've learned that a bit of air in the batter keeps them, they're bubbling away nicely, aren't they? That Dom Perignon though is a little bit flatter and a little bit sadder than the nightimber which is... Look at him. He's just like boing. Not that you're buying it. Not that I'm buying it. What are you expecting any flavour differences to be between any of these three? Literally nothing at all. We don't know. No one's ever come into this shop. We're on uncharted territory. Yeah. So we're going to take out our nightimber. Would you like to take it out? Yeah. I'll take out nightimber. It's looking so golden. I'm going to do an underarm flick. And then we're going to take out the Dom Perignon and we're going to pop him on here. Look at that. Dom Perignon nightimber. I have to say, for £500, it looks pretty simple. I sort of think so, but we haven't tasted it yet. That does look good. It's all about the taste. And so while the chips are cooking, I'm going to give them a little blind tasting on the best of English versus the best of French. Dom o'clock. Right, chefs, stand here. I want to know, do you like the left one or the right one? Cheers. Little taste. Both of them are at least £100. What do you think of that? Oh. So which wine do you like best? The left one or the right one? Right one. I'm going left. I'm left one. You're left one. Bing, you're the French. You're Dom Perignon. We're English. Right. Now, I want a fish tasting. Maybe I should have had some water after that and then taste the right. Just do whatever you want, Bing. We're all good. Come on, Fergal. So good. Can I get you a bit of tartar? Yeah, a bit of tartar would be great, please. Let's stick it to the French. Waiting for my tartar sauce. Tartar sauce. So we're now both tasting this one. There's not a lot wrong with that. Hot enough? He's burnt. Smith's burnt his face. Fergal's literally having a meltdown. You can spit it out if you'd like. I don't. I need that. Wash it down with a bit of English Fizz. Oh, look at this. This is slightly drier than the one that I had. Yes, I've made a decision, Fergal. Have you? So the moisture on this fish I really love. And the crispiness of the batter. So that is my tastiest fish. Shall we see what it is? See where it comes from. Look at that. It is night in the winds, in the glass, and on the fish. That is the Dom Perignon, which is a very good fish. But it is different. Shall we open up to the public? Cheers. Let's open up. Well, this is coming off then. Let's play. Good. Right. We've got guests. Come on. Let's get pouring some Fizz. OK, we'll put some glasses here. Cheers, everyone. Cheers. Welcome to Tom's takeover of Bardsley's for half an hour more. Right. Let's go. Ladies and gentlemen, sit yourselves down at those two tables. So my magic producer, Maisie, has got the guys to cook two brilliant fish. One is in Dom Perignon, and one is in Nightimber. So let's get the magic people to brighten in and decide what wins. Come on. Which one's your favorite? So we need you to taste both. And they're both cod. They're both cod. Yeah. Three, two, one. Go. This one's quite crunchy. Is this crunchier? Yeah. This is crunchier. Three, two, one. Prong the fish. Oh. And that. You need that. That's the good bit. Three, two, one. Skewer the fish. Oh, my goodness. Yeah. Get it in. Three, two, one. Go. The losing, the one that got a lot of votes but didn't quite win is the French at 200 quid a bottle. And at 145, literally a snip, bloody Nora, is the Nightimber. So good. Welcome to Barsley's. That is the takeover of the Dom Perignon and the Nightimber. Thank you very much. Good. Right. Have I got the job? You start tomorrow. Better get back to the fryer then. Let's get fishing. Come in, Fergal. Here we go. Let's get frying. Right. What am I doing? Am I doing the batter or the frying?