I have over the last couple of weeks had my patriotism excited from its usual simmer, simmer in the broadest sense of the word, more of a single, occasional bubble in a sea of indifference, excited none the less to a boil and my outlook on these green and pleasant lands buoyed and brightened by the celebration that is Englishness by of course the valiant and typically dull efforts of the national side in the Euros and let us not forget the most important of occasions, the visiting of English wineries by The Apprentice teams. Boiled it has been, enough so for me to have composed an article on English wine.
People may be sceptical about English wines but it is difficult for English winemakers living so close to the most influential viticultural country in the world. English wine heritage dates back at lot earlier than many may think. In the early Middle Ages vineyards in England were plentiful and thriving. But by the 12th century, however, production stopped after England, through the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine, acquired Bordeaux wine. This was until a renaissance in the 1950s saw the planting and growing of grapes for wine in Hampshire, a trend which became more widespread across the south coast and southern counties.
The grapes that are planted are fairly unusual, with plantings of Reichensteiner, Seyval Blanc, Muller-Thurgau and Bacchus, named after the Greco-Roman god of wine. As I said an unusual lot and the wine buying public would be excused for having never heard of them. They make very dry whites similar to the Austrian mould. The black grapes planted are equally barmy; Dornfelder and Rondo make early ripening reds, both of these grapes have good floral and fruit flavours with the Rondo lighter in body and the Dornfelder closer to Syrah in style and weight.
As well as these groups of grapes there has been the increase in planting of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and this is for the jewel in the English wine crown, English sparkling wine. With recent climate change working for the English and with similar soils to Champagne we are able to make outstanding sparkling wine. It rivals a lot of good Champagne in both its quality and unfortunately its price. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are the three grape used in making Champagne and all three are capable of growing well in England. The production methods are also the same as in Champagne production with a secondary fermentation process taking place in the bottle to produce the rich toasty, biscuity flavours which are also apparent in Champagne.
Nyetimber is reputed to be the first English sparkling wine to truly rival champagne. Producing only sparkling wines, they have really made a name for themselves. The Classic Cuvee is their signature style. It is always a vintage wine and is bottle aged (after the secondary fermentation process) for three years before release. It has a wonderful brioche flavour and a finely acidic mid-palate, like you would expect from good Champagnes, and a delicate and fruitful nose. Being a vintage wine it changes subtly with each release and, like vintage Champagne, is only released on the better years. This wine uses all of the champagne grapes in its blend, but they also produce a Blanc de Blancs which uses just Chardonnay and a Rose which includes Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, a little of the Pinot being fermented with the grape skin to extract the Rose colour. These wines are perfect and prices are similar to decent and branded non-vintage Champagne, about 26 quid. I spent some time at the Nyetimber stall at the recent London International Wine Fair and tried a few of their latest released wines and have to say that I was very impressed with them all, the Blanc de Blancs and the rose were excellent but I really loved the rounded, completeness of the Classic Cuvee. Their staff were lovely as well which always helps.
Another house of note is Chapel Down in Kent. Likewise Chapel Down produces a good range of sparkling wines. Their sparkling Rose is probably my favourite sparkling Rose outside of Champagne. It has deft strawberry flavours, blended with a delicate biscuitiness, which follows from nose to palate. Its bubbles are for me a little large and violent, and when I first saw this I wasn’t impressed, but it is so well crafted that this doesn’t really matter. At about £22 it is very well priced for what it is. Chapel Down sparkling range also include some really good Pinot based wines that are complex in structure and rich in flavour, but their still wines deserve some attention. Of their whites I would recommend the Bacchus, which harbours exotic aromas of lychee, rose petals and herbs, with flavours of white pepper, confected pear and red apple. It is a dry wine, with enough flavour to complement a range of foods from salads or fish, through to roast white meats. The second of their whites to mention is the Flint Dry. Like its name suggests this wine is dry with real stoney, steely flavours accompanying citrus, pear and melon. It is a really refreshing wine and would be a superb partner to fish. They make a smaller number of red wines; red wine production being a smaller industry in general in England, the one for me was their Pinot Noir. This Pinot is just slightly lighter than most French Pinot Noir (especially Burgundy Pinot), but has a lot more to it than German Pinot. Its complex red berry nose carries through to the palate where it combines with earthy and black pepper notes. Like most Pinot Noir this would be matched excellently with casseroles or roasted meats.
So there we have a brief glimpse into the burgeoning English wine market. It hasn’t necessarily done a huge amount to rouse my patriotism but now that the miseries of the England fixtures of Euro 2012 are over I might just need to reach for a bottle.
Andrew D. Clark
It is a shame to note that although British growers have really gone for interesting and appropriate grape varieties, the wines that have been noticed in a wider stage have been the fizzies i.e. the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs. Chapel Down and Three Choirs have gained some traction with Bacchus and maybe this is about playing the long game, but I wonder whether it is going to take someone braving more of the £6-£10 market and taking an initial (substantial) loss to make the sort of wider-public impact British wine needs?
I have a nice bottle from Renishaw Hall in Derbyshire awaiting me, and I shall let you know how this more Northerly fellow checks out!
Hi Sarah, how are you? Whilst I agree that it would be interesting to see English wineries producing more still stuff with the more obscure grapes, looking perhaps to establish a signature grape in the same way that Chile have with Carmenere and Argentina have with Malbec, the sad fact is that consumers have no idea what Dornfelder or Rondo are and it would be difficult to sell to them. I think that what producers such as Nyetimber and Chapel Down have done is probably the most correct approach, listing their wines in supermarkets and Majestic Wine is the ideal way of introducing English wines to a larger market and with the buying power that these places have they can afford to sell more at a lower bottom line. I would agree with many people that supermarkets and Majestic are dirty words but their reach is a lot further than a decent indie and for the producers at least brand recognition will eventually bring repeat business. Whilst I always found it relatively easy to sell English wines to people, the sheer fact that it was English being enough to encourage them to buy a bottle or two, they didn’t often make a habit of repeat buying, most likely because of the price, the nature of the beast in England with appropriate agricultural land restricted and the cost of production much higher than elsewhere, also because it wasn’t New Zealand Sauvignon.
It is a good thing that the sparklings are getting some recognition from consumers and the Apprentice appearance has helped, I was at the London International Wine Fair last month and spoke to one of the staff at Nyetimber and she told me that despite their choice not to be featured on the programme they received a massive amount of new business, with something like 9000 more website hits than usual on the night that the show aired. Perhaps the English signature will simply be sparkling.