The Rise and Rise of English Wine

The rise and rise of English wine. It could be a poem couldn't it? I'd like to think by John Betjeman, although in his day if you had suggested he may like to drink English sparkling wine or Merret (more of which later) instead of Champagne I'm sure he would have laughed heartily, despite being the most patriotic of Englishman.

I should make clear here we are talking about English Wine rather than British Wine as has been vitriolically pointed out to me twice in the last week. I'm not sure that anyone is actually aware of British Wine or what it is. British Wine is a very inferior product made from grape juice imported into the UK where as English Wine is produced from fresh grapes grown in England, or Wales or apparently Scotland in the very near future. Just wanted to make that clear as was made clear to me at both events I have attended in the last week.

English Wine is definitely on the rise and whilst I don't think the French are quaking in their boots just yet there is plenty of interest in our viticulture. Grape growing and wine making first started commercially in Britain in the 1960s but it is only in the last 15 years or so that it has become widely regarded and today many high end restaurants are actively stocking and pushing English wines, and with good reason. Our Sparkling Wines in particular are seen as more than a match for Champagne and this is proven in the number of awards they have won.

You may not be aware but English Wine Week took place in the last week of May and lots of events took place around the country to celebrate.

One event I attended was "English Wine in an English Rose Garden" which took place in London  on Saturday 1st June and was hosted by Kelly of www.tastour.com, an award winning provider of weekly food and drink experiences. I must give credit to my wife's cousin Carly and her partner James at this point. It was they who organised the day out for us and what a day it was.

Kelly Bayliffe of Tastour

I cannot really say too much about the venue. But I was very impressed that Kelly had managed to set up two tables with all the nibbles, wine, glasses, etc with no help at all having been dropped off in a taxi in the middle of London with masses of people about.

The tasting was all about English Wine and we sampled 3 sparklers, 3 rosé and a sparkling red. Unfortunately Kelly did not give out tasting notes or a list of wines that we tried, which I thought was a bit disappointing, and it was difficult to make notes standing up, especially as I had forgotten to take a pen with me. 

But no matter, we started with a Nyetimber Classic Cuvee which as luck would have it I had tried only the week before at another tasting. I bet in a blind tasting you could not tell it apart from Champagne. It has classic Champagne characteristics with a real biscuity, yeasty flavour and a long lemony finish. We moved on to Camel Valley 'Cornwall' Brut which was a Gold Medal winner and tasted it. Delicious. Matthew Jukes of the Daily Mail rates Camel Valley as "the number one winery in the country" and no wonder. Later on we also tried Camel Valley Sparkling Red which was certainly one of the best sparkling reds I've tried. 

The final sparkling wine was actually my favourite of the day. Ridgeview Bloomsbury is a Chardonnay dominated classic blend with a touch of Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir to add finesse and structure just like a classic Champagne. And to me it tasted as the best Champagne should with lovely overtones of melon and honey. We moved onto some rosé wines shortly after tasting the Ridgeview but I could have drank the fizz all afternoon. Wow. 

Selection of the Wines tasted at the English Wine - English Rose Garden Event

I mentioned Merret at the start of the blog and it has been, controversially, suggested that it was Britain Christopher Merret rather than Dom Perignon who invented sparkling wine in the mid 17th Century. I have to give credit for this information to Kelly as it was a new factoid for me. The thought is that whilst the French have Champagne, Spanish, Cava and the Italians Prosecco the English have Merret. Not sure it will catch on but Ridgeview have started putting the Merret name on the neck of their bottles.

Our day with Tastour was completed with a tasting of three rosé wines that were all good but it felt a bit after the Lord Mayor's Show after the Merret. See I told you it would catch on. I should conclude by saying it was a great event, Kelly clearly knows her stuff and a big thank you to Carly and James for buying the tickets for us to attend.

One issue I know someone has with Kelly is Tina Abbiss of Halfpenny Green Vineyards which is only about 3 miles from my front door. Whilst in London Kelly suggested that 50 degrees was the northern limit for successful grape growth and Three Choirs Vineyard in Gloucestershire was the most northerly commercially successful operation. Well actually, no.

Tina, from Halfpenny Green
 with budding vines for 2013

Halfpenny Green Vineyards, which is 52 degrees north is celebrating 30 years of wine making this year and is still owned by Martin Vickers, a lifelong farmer, who started with a half acre experiment back in 1983. In fact the operation is a proper family operation with son Clive as winemaker, daughter-in-law Lisa managing the very successful tea rooms and wife Tina running the sales and marketing of the business. And it was Tina I went to see to talk about their wines. The operation has now expanded to over 30 acres of vines with more planned and currently a new extended winery and visitor centre is being built on site. I toured the current winery with Tina. They actually now produce wines for 30 operators as well as their own hugely successful wines. Overall they bottle 90,000 bottles a year from the winery.

Help me Rondo, Help, help me Rondo.
Award winning Rondo wine from 2011

Halfpenny Green produce a whole range of wines from dessert wine to sparkling to a full bodied red. Full bodied red I here you cry? In 2011 growing conditions were perfect to produce a full red wine from the Rondo grape which came in at a whopping 15% but on my tasting was quite delicious. Full and ripe with juicy tannins and velvety, long finish quite unlike many other wines from these shores. Good enough in fact to bad a Silver award at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2013. Unfortunately the weather in 2012 put paid to a repeat performance but they are hopeful for 2013. I should say I tried many of the white wines they offer and all were very pleasant and I hope to try the dessert wine and sparkling wines some time soon.

I should conclude by saying that we have to remember how hard it is to produce quality wines in England. It is estimated that in any decade two years will be great, four years acceptable, and the other four years useless due to our unpredictable weather patterns.

So hats off to all English wine producers, especially Martin, Clive, Tina and the rest of the 40 employees at Halfpenny Green, for giving us a little something to shout about when it comes to wine.

Cheers. Enjoy your wine.

Next time: My visit to Porto in Portugal

Simon

Follow me on twitter @gloryofwine

Birmingham School of Wine

If you are at all interested in wine the only way to really learn more is to actually taste more. Obviously most of us have got limited funds for buying wine so an enjoyable way of getting to taste a variety of wines is by going to a wine tasting.

I am in a privileged position of working in the hospitality trade and wine tastings are something I go to on a reasonably regular basis and it is great fun, providing you can leave the car at home and remember which pocket you put your house keys in when you get home.

But there are plenty of opportunities for the general public to get involved too, and it doesn't have to cost you a fortune. One such company that offers this opportunity near me is Birmingham Wine School which was established in 2008 and offers a wide variety of courses for everyone from people simply interested in wine up to professional people in the trade like myself who wish to gain professional qualifications in the subject.

My father-in-law Rob is very passionate about his wine, especially Bordeaux and he would admit to being a proper Francophile. He loves going there and enjoying the French way of life, especially the 'vin'. So for his birthday his wife, my mother-in-law bought for him (and me - thank you Norma) tickets for 'Good Food would choose Bordeaux' which took place at the The Old Joint Stock, a lovely old Fullers pub that does great ales and food in central Birmingham on Tuesday 19th February.


My somewhat wine spattered tasting notes from the evening

I will confess at this point that we both knew what to expect, as the previous year we had attended the same venue for The Grand Tour of France which was a whistle stop tour of the whole of France.

We ate before we arrived, therefore not repeating the mistake made last time when I for one fell asleep on the train home. It's amazing how those little sips add up and by the end of the night you can easily have drunk nearly a whole bottle. They do actually put on some cheese, paté and biscuits for you and with some wines, food as an accompaniment is a real help to enjoying the wine.

We started with a Sauvignon Blanc from Entre-deux-Mers exactly as I had predicted to Rob. But for most, including me, and leaving aside for a moment the fantastic sweet wine from Sauternes and the like, Bordeaux is all about red wine, 'Claret' as we British used to love to call it. The first red was actually a bit of an anti-climax, a decidedly dull but inoffensive Bordeaux Superieur that came from Tesco (surprise, surprise). Actually it probably would have gone well with one of those dodgy lasagnes.

You get a little A4 sheet with a bit of information about each of the wines before you start the night, region, grape variety, year, merchant etc along with a short description but they don't tell you the price of the wines until the end of the night. Therefore myself and Rob have a little competition to see who can get closest at guessing. On this night we decided the loser would have to buy the other a decent bottle as a prize. More of which later. After each wine is poured a general discussion will take place about it's characteristics including the appearance, nose and finally the palate.


La Dominique St Emilion Grand Cru Classé
and Chateau Greysac from Medoc
both 9/10 wines for us

The Tesco wine was £4.99 (I guessed £6.50) and I could see the couple sitting opposite us who were new to this looking a little nervous as if they feared the evening might be a waste of money. The good news was the quality of the wines soon ramped up and after trying pretty good Premieres Côtes de Bordeaux from Château Tanesse and Château Paret from the Côtes de Castillon we tried two really fantastic wines, La Dominique 2003, a St Emilion Grand Cru Classé with fantastic blackcurrant flavours and great balance, and Château Greysac 2003 a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Medoc which was dry but with sweet cherry fruit and soft tannins.

After three more fine wines from Margaux, Montagne de St Emilions and St Emilion  itself we returned to Tesco with a tasting of their finest Sauternes. Now, I know sweet wine isn't to everyones taste, indeed Rob declined an opportunity to try it, but for me it is a delicious honeyed treat to be sampled when ever you get the chance. Shame we didn't have any sticky toffee pudding to go with it.

At the end of the night which was about 90 minutes long our guide, whose name I'm afraid I forgot to write down went through the prices and my competitive nature went into overdrive. Sadly I lost to Rob by 5 wines to 4 with one tied and how he loved that. Now I have to find him a decent bottle. I understand Tesco do some good wine. Seriously though it was an excellent evening and great value. If you have a chance to go please do as I am sure you will enjoy it.

Next time. Two up and coming varieties beginning with V. Verdelho and Viognier. Oh, and roast chicken.

Enjoy your wine. Cheers!

Simon

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