My English wine adventure…

I’ve embarked on a new adventure; my mission is to find the best examples of great quality and value wines from around the UK.  I will be selecting a number of wines which will showcase what our fair isles can produce.

It’s no secret that wine is produced in England and Wales, but it’s often overlooked for many reasons :

1. The climate
2. The wine is expensive and quality can be questionable
3. England produces in 1 year what we consume in 1 day, so there simply isn’t enough to go round

Global warming has helped us with number 1 and I am going to help with 2 and 3 to sniff out some great value examples of good quality English and Welsh wine.

It’s just not British

British Wine is a term that can be used for wine that is produced from non-British grapes.  Where you see the classification English or Welsh Wine, you know that the entire process form vine to bottle has taken place in the country of origin.

In recent years English Sparkling wine has emerged as real competition for it’s European equivalents, winning international awards.  So I will steer clear of the obvious and search for the best of the still wines.

Typical Grape Varietals

WHITE

Seyval Blanc, Reichensteiner, Müller-Thurgau, Bacchus, Chardonnay, Madeleine Angevine, Schönburger, Huxelrebe, Ortega.

RED

Dornfelder, Rondo, Pinot meunier and Pinot Noir and a few others, but red grapes tend to be lesser grown as the volume of red wine produced is nearly a fifth less than that of white.

Follow me on my journey through some of the lesser known vineyards around England and Wales.