In 2019 English winegrowers had to dodge a number of bullets. An early budburst meant that they were potentially exposed to Spring frosts, but blowers and bougies largely saw off that challenge. Then just as it looked as though persistent cold, wet weather might threaten the flowering season, the skies cleared and warm, dry, conditions […]
The 2018 wine growing season in England & Wales been described as “textbook perfect”, and “the perfect year for growing grapes”. So what exactly was it about the way the weather behaved that had vineyard managers (and accountants) so excited? In the English Wine Growing Season 2018 report (pdf) temperatures and rainfall are tracked through […]
Winegrowing is very sensitive to weather conditions. Both quality and yield are affected by the timing and amounts of rainfall, heat and sunlight that the vines receive over the course of a growing season. There is a very large amount of data potentially available to those interested in better understanding how the 2017 vintage of […]
The current era of commercial English winegrowing can be thought of as dating from 1951, when Guy Salisbury-Jones began the first planting at what would become Hambledon Vineyard. English wines now routinely garner top awards in international competitions, with one of the critical contributory factors often cited as being Britain’s warming climate. It is well […]
According to a Press Release from Defra, sales of English and Welsh wine are predicted to be worth nearly £100 million in 2015. This appears to be based on the assumption that English (and Welsh) wine sales will total 5 million bottles this year. Based on the available data, is that a realistic estimate? Just […]
For English cricket supporters, the recent match at Wellington is best forgotten. Yet for supporters of English Sparkling wine the ICC Cricket World Cup may best be remembered for the two England vs New Zealand blind tasting matches that took place on 19th February 2015 in Wellingon and London. Each country was represented by a […]
Ahead of Thursday’s sparkling wine blind tasting against New Zealand (“Battle of the Bubbles“) we look at, in alphabetical order, the English Team’s lower order. 7. Hush Heath, Balfour Brut Rosé, 2010 Owen Elias is a four-time winner of the UKVA’s Winemaker of the Year award and his Balfour Brut Rosé is the pick of […]
The 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup is underway and a much-anticipated match will take place in Wellington on 20th February when co-hosts New Zealand take on England. Just ahead of this fixture, sparkling wines from the two nations will also compete, this time in a blind tasting dubbed the “Battle of the Bubbles“. Ahead of […]
The English wine industry in its modern form arguably dates back to the 1950s and progress since then has occurred in fits and starts. About ten years ago, the industry entered a new phase which currently shows no signs of abating. Improved viticultual understanding, availability of more appropriate clones, realisation of the suitability of the […]
The Champagne and English Sparkling Wine industries are very different beasts, not only in their size but also in their structure. In Champagne, the majority of wine is produced by the Négociant-Manipulant (NP) who largely buy in grapes, often under long-term contracts. They then produce wine on a very large scale, so that 300 NP […]