English Wine Week, that annual celebration of our native wines and winemakers which runs from 20 to 28 June, is almost upon us. And with some 2,500 hectares under vine in England and Wales, spread across more than 700 vineyards, and with 160 or so commercial wineries producing some remarkable wines, our winemaking industry would appear to have much to celebrate. Our sparklers in particular are now generally agreed to be as fine as any in the world.
However, with restaurants, bars, pubs and hotels currently closed, there are far fewer opportunities for wine producers to get their wares under our noses and they have never needed our support more. We need to get drinking!
I recently had occasion to tweak the tail of my old friend George Atkinson-Clark of the Milton Keynes Wine School when he hosted a comparative tasting of prosecco and champagne. I upbraided him for not including English fizz with the following rather inept limericks:
My dear Mr Atkinson-Clark,
A tasting of fizz? What a lark!
Although we love champers
In picnicking hampers,
I fear that you’re wide of the mark.
Champagne,
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