Come off it, English wine is delicious

I hate to pick a fight with a fellow Speccie scribe but, as this august organ’s drinks editor, I must take issue with Dr Andrew Cunningham and his recent dismissal of English wine. Andrew lives in West Sussex and I live in East Sussex. He explains that he’s near Nyetimber, Nutbourne and Kinsbrook (not to mention Ambriel, Roebuck and Tinwood); I’m near Breaky Bottom, Court Garden and Ridgeview (not to mention Artelium, Black Dog Hill and Bolney). There’s no question that we both live in bona fide wine regions. 

There are 950 vineyards in the UK and over 200 wineries, from Kent to Cornwall and from Devon to Denbighshire. There are a dozen alone in Yorkshire. And, as Dr C points out, sales of English wine are booming. This is for good reason: the best are blooming delicious. I admit that there are some also-rans – dreary, acidic, over-priced examples produced by folk belatedly clambering on the English wine bandwagon, intent simply on having a fancy wine label to their name. The best English wines, though, are world-class. 

A few weeks ago we welcomed Frédéric Faye, head winemaker of the mighty Château Figeac, to our boardroom for one of our fabled Spectator winemaker lunches. With four different vintages of his glorious St Emilion ahead of us (each bottle retailing for around £250+ a pop) we needed a decent sparkling aperitif and I had no compunction whatsoever in serving the 2014 Hattingley Valley Blanc de Blancs. ‘What is this amazing wine?’ Frédéric asked after just one sip. ‘It’s wonderful.’ On being told that it was English fizz from Hampshire, he exclaimed, ‘Mon Dieu, I had no idea… But, wow, it has every right to stand alongside Figeac.’ The readers, too, lapped it up. 

I also recently held a blind tasting of still chardonnays for 40 or so guests. The lineup included bottles from Burgundy, Chablis, Margaret River, the Western Cape, California, Chile and so on. The runaway winner? Chapel Down’s Kit’s Coty Chardonnay from the North Downs of Kent. Yes, I know it’s £30 a bottle – beyond most of us except as a special treat – but that was the level of wines we were tasting and everyone loved it. It’s a belter. 

And while I agree with Andrew that few producers have cracked making still red wine in the UK, I’d say give them time. We haven’t yet got the right climate. Meanwhile, I would point Andrew towards the Balfour Suitcase Pinot Noir from Kent, if he can find any, for so fine is it that it sells out on release. Or the Artelium Estate Pinot Noir from East Sussex, the current 2020 vintage of which is a complete joy and the price of which – £26.99 – compares quite fairly with equivalent quality red burgundy. 

It’s our sparkling wines, though, that really shine, made (apart from a few prosecco-style examples) in the same way as champagne, a notoriously laborious and expensive process. They are also taxed in the same way and, with lower yields than in champagne, there are inevitably economies of scale. 

Andrew says that he’d rather have a bottle of Moët than English fizz any day and questions why one would have a Mondeo when one can have a Mercedes. We visited Moët along with Bollinger, Brimoncourt, Henri Chauvet, Pol Roger and Taittinger on our recent Spectator tour of Champagne and knocked back some truly spectacular wines. I also tasted some pretty grim, cheap, crappy champagne in a bar in Reims.  

The regular Moët Brut Imperial NV retails for around £37 to £42 a bottle these days, somewhat exceeding Andrew’s £20 budget. Add another tenner, Andrew, and you could enjoy a bottle of Ambriel’s fabulous Classic Cuvée made just down the road from you and still have plenty of change from what Moët would have charged. 

You say that you’re a proud patriot but will give English wine a miss. I don’t drink English wine because it’s English, I drink it because I love it. (You can read my limerick on the subject here.) 

Come on, Andrew, join me for lunch to discuss. We will go to Upstairs at the George in London’s Great Portland Street. It’s a cracking spot, packed every day with wine lovers poring over the list of over 100 English wines. I guarantee that we’ll find something that you like. And don’t worry about whether or not we can afford it. We’ll sting Fraser with the bill.