23rd
to 31st May marks English Wine Week, and numerous supermarkets, wine
merchants and restaurants across the UK will be running promotions on this
country’s fine wine produce. This is the perfect opportunity for me to write a
bit about these wonderful wines and hopefully encourage you to explore them further.
Last week
Waitrose announced that sales of its English wines almost doubled in 2014. This
really got me thinking. I definitely don’t drink enough English wine, despite
thinking of myself as pretty patriotic, and I’m sure I’m not alone. The truth
is that English wines are not cheap (thanks to low production and high labour
and land costs) so you can expect to be forking out at least £10 for a decent
bottle of still wine and £20 for a bottle of English fizz.
Most of our vineyards
are down South, where they are planted on south-facing, chalky hills. It’s this
very same stretch of chalky soil that extends down to the Champagne region of
France, which is one of the reasons why our sparkling wines are making such
waves around the World. If you haven’t yet tried an English sparkling wine, you’re
missing out – the best can easily compete against Champagne in a taste test.
They aren’t cheap (the method of production is the same as in Champagne, which is an intricate, expensive method). In fact, the Queen
celebrated her Golden Jubilee with a few glasses of Nyetimber sparkling wine – a
Sussex vineyard whose standards are so high that they scrapped their 2012
vintage of around 400,000 bottles because of the poor quality of the grapes.
Away from
our top notch sparklers, English white wines have a distinctively crisp and
aromatic character: think gooseberries, elderflower, grass and asparagus.
Whereas for sparkling wines the main grapes planted are Chardonnay and Pinot
Noir, for our white wines Germanic grapes dominate, especially crossings (eg
Muller Thurgau) which were designed to beat the cold. One of the most widely
seen grape varieties is Bacchus, which is England’s answer to Sancerre.
I have to
admit here that I haven’t yet tasted an English red wine that I have enjoyed.
The most promising grapes are Pinot Noir and Dornfelder but they are all very
dependent on the English weather being warm enough to ripen properly (and let’s
face it, that’s not often!)
If you would
like to try English wine, Waitrose definitely has the best supermarket
selection. The Wine Pantry in Borough market in London sells only English wines
so their range is by far the best I’ve found, and if you can’t get to London they
sell all their wines online (www.winepantry.co.uk).
Of course
the best idea is for you to take a trip to see where the magic happens, so here
is a list of some of our top English vineyards which cater well for visitors:
An idyllic
location with a climate warm enough to produce really exciting wines.
A great
opportunity to see first hand how top quality sparkling wines are made (it’s
not easy!)
If you’re
feeling energetic, they host marathons with wine stations en route!
Delicious
wines, and they have a fabulous restaurant on site too
PS: don’t
make the mistake of buying “British Wine” as this is NOT the same thing. "British
wine" is made using cheap imported grapes and can be found in some supermarkets
for around £3…
Happy
Swigging!
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