Jonathan Ray Jonathan Ray

Help us to celebrate English Wine Week

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, prosecco and so on
Will always continue to flow on,
But the fact of it is,
English fizz is the bizz
And what those in the know want to go on.

Herbert Hall, after all, is a belter
And Ambriel – phew! – it’ll melt yer.
Chapel Down and Ridgeview
To name but a few
Are wines that’ll sure make yer swelter.

Breaky Bottom and Gusbourne as well
Are really rippingly swell.
And if fine Camel Valley
Is not up your alley,
Well, dammit, it sure rings my bell.

And what about dear Coates & Seely?
A wine I imbibe far too freely.
The bubbles combine
To make me just fine
And really quite touchy and feely.

And Hattingley, Denbies and Grange
Are fizzes that shouldn’t be strange
To any wine drinker
Or cerebral thinker
Who wishes to broaden their range.

The fact of the matter is clear
There are wonderful fizzes right here
In this green pleasant land,
Closer to hand
Than any they make over there.

So,















































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