Great wines on our doorstep – now’s the time to try English & Welsh wines

June is a good time to celebrate at the best of times – the weather is usually quite pleasant, gardens are awash with colour and with the Summer Solstice and Midsummer’s Day in quick succession, there are plenty of reasons to crack open a bottle. And this year June just got even better – with Welsh Wine Week this week (4-13 June) and English Wine Week fast approaching (19-27 June), now is a perfect opportunity to discover the delights that English & Welsh wines have to offer, and support our nation’s wine growers, as well as local wine retailers and other businesses, at the same time.

English and Welsh wines have come of age. Although wine making on our island has been around for centuries, even twenty years ago, you’d find few people who had much praise for English (and Welsh) wines.  Then came the Nyetimber effect when a couple of enterprising Americans decided they could produce sparkling wine in a part of England where the soil and climate were similar to those in Champagne and set about proving it, and the rest, as they say is history. Fast forward to 2021 and there are some absolute delights to tempt your palate, both in terms of sparkling and still wines.

I had an opportunity recently to take part in an online wine tasting featuring English and Welsh wines, run by Steve Hovington from Cambridge Wine Academy. Steve is a very knowledgeable and entertaining presenter and it was an interesting, informative and very enjoyable evening. We covered a range of wines – white, red and rosé – and it was a real eye-opener. I hadn’t realised that there are such high quality wines being produced on this sceptered isle of ours; indeed, there were several wines that had it been a blind tasting, you might well have thought were from one of the more established wine-producing countries rather than from England or Wales.

English and Welsh wines are most definitely worth exploring. Here are a few to get you started:

Still Rosé by Hattingley 2020

This is a blend of Pinot Noir, Pinot Noir Précoce and Pinot Meunier grapes grown on the chalky soil of Hattingley Valley in Hampshire. Pink salmon in colour with aromas of raspberry, cherry and a hint of pear drops on the nose, and flavours of raspberry and strawberry, with creamy notes, on the palate, the wine is well-balanced with ripe fruit flavours and vibrant acidity. A light, refreshing wine with a long finish. Perfect for a summer’s evening and if you closed your eyes, you could be forgiven for thinking this was a Provençal rosé.

Available from Grape Britannia (£15.99)

White Castle Pinot Noir Reserve, Monmouthshire, 2018

I think this is probably the first Welsh wine I have tried. And what a fine example it is. No wonder it’s an Oz Clarke favourite – it’s a very impressive wine. This Pinot Noir Reserve 2018 is made from Pinot Noir Précoce grapes and has aromas of red berries and vanilla, with a hint of oak and smokiness on the nose, and ripe red fruit flavours of raspberry and strawberry on the palate. It is a light, well-balanced wine which will go perfectly with Welsh lamb or a cheese platter.

Available from Grape Britannia (£27.50)

Knightor Three Barrel Bacchus 2019

Well, if you can’t get to Cornwall right now, let Cornwall come to you! This very aromatic, off-dry Bacchus (great name for a grape variety!) has a different character from a typical Bacchus wine and with its high level of residual sugar, is reminiscent of a German Kabinett wine. It has quite pronounced peach and elderflower aromas on the nose leading to crisp, red apple and elderflower flavours, with a hint of oak, on the palate. A well-balanced wine with a long finish, this Three Barrel Bacchus is a perfect match for Cornish cheeses and fruity desserts.

Available from Grape Britannia (£16.99)

One other wine which was hugely impressive was the Gutter & Stars Bacchus 2020, I Wanna Be Adored, and all the more so since this was Cambridge-based Gutter & Stars debut vintage. Cambridge is known for many things but who would have thought it was also the home of an urban winery! It was a very appealing well-balanced wine but with only 400 bottles produced for this first vintage, it has quickly sold out. However the winery is set to release two more wines this year – a Pinot Noir and a Chardonnay – so keep an eye out for these.

Look out for more reviews of English and Welsh wines in the coming weeks. Cheers!