A sceptic’s guide to English wine

Being in possession of a well-kept secret is every wine-buyer’s goal, not least because uncorking an unusual find impresses even the snootiest of guests. English wine-makers have long been trying to break up any residual secrecy about the worthiness of their wines. Not quite new world, not quite old world, English wine was always going to fill an odd space in the market. 

Confession: I never buy wine from the British isles. Almost anything else has always struck me as both better value and nicer to drink.

And then I met Matt Hodgson. Hodgson runs Grape Britannia, a modest but expert shop and bar in Cambridge that sells only English wine (plus some Welsh and one from the Scottish borders). Hodgson, who is Cambridge University’s tax adviser and has a degree in maths and philosophy from Oxford, decided that he would try to persuade me that English wine was worth buying. Better than worth buying: a must-buy.