History was made today, but were we ever early. Ahead of our time. Waaay bright and bushy-tailed.

We arrived from St. Alban’s in Long Eaton near Nottingham well in advance of the U20 Women’s Rugby Nations Cup match between England and Canada. We’d thought it was to start at 2pm, but arrived to find out we’d misunderstood and in fact we had to wait until 5pm.

No problem. We staked our place, got out the Canadian flag and the maple leafs. And when one has a fine picnic and a bottle of Sancerre to enjoy with it, time flies.

This wine is clear and bright, pale lemon and I assumed it had light legs. Hard to tell though as we enjoyed it in classy paper cups.

On the nose, it is clean and youthful with medium plus intense aromas of gooseberry, guava, light lemon, sweet green grass and gentle herb.

The palate is dry with a satisfyingly high acidity, medium alcohol and medium minus body. The medium plus flavour characteristics include more gooseberry, guava, some lychee, green hay, orange and lemon drop and knock off with a medium plus finish.

Juicy, crisp and refreshing on this 30c day, it was a solid WSET ‘Very Good’ – beautifully acidic and perfectly fabulous wine for the picnic.

And as I’d mentioned, history was made – to top it all off, the Canadian girls beat the British team handily – the first time a men’s or women’s team had EVERY done so in rugby history at any level.

Well played, all around.