English wine.

2012 is upon us and just like every year that there is international competition I start it with my usual distain for the national team. I find it difficult to get behind players like John Terry and Ashley Cole, people for whom I usually harbour nothing but the utmost contempt. Fabio Capello has done little since his first appearances to stir up any love from me for this England side and now he seems to fill the bench with the animated pontificating of a man in a rubber Postman Pat like mask. International breaks during the season fill me with dread. I am like many who see some over-hyped friendlies against 2^nd and 3^rd rate Central European countries as an unwelcome disruption to my league side’s already ordinary season. The FA have done little to ingratiate themselves with me in their handling of the “Rooney Incident”, and that could be any number of Rooney Incidents, going crawling to FIFA to try and repeal a ban sets hardly the best example for the iron fist with which they have seen similar occasions in the league. It could be where I am from, hardly the most patriotic family in hardly the most patriotic part of the country.

That said I have just had the test cricket on and a decent days play in the first day of the second test against Pakistan has started to simmer what is left of my patriotism. And who am I kidding, come the start of Euro 2012 I will be filled with hope and fitted for a new comfortable set of blinkers for the boys in white.

So with this is mind and with the simmer of patriotism desperate to reach boiling point I thought I would extol the virtues of English wine. I will put your minds at ease. This is not going to be an essay on the brilliance of Lambrini, its direct and uncomplicated palate or its gravitational affects on the clothes of English women, not at all, as from certain parts of England we produce some excellent wines. People may be sceptical but it is difficult for English winemakers living so close to the most influential viticultural country in the world.

English wine heritage dates back at lot earlier than many may think. In the early Middle Ages vineyards in England were plentiful and thriving. But by the 12^th century, however, production stopped after England, through the marriage of Henry II to Eleanor of Aquitaine, acquired Bordeaux wine. This was until a renaissance in the 1950s saw the planting and growing of grapes for wine in Hampshire, a trend which became more widespread across the south coast and southern counties.

The grapes that are planted are fairly unusual, with plantings of Reichensteiner, Seyval Blanc, Muller-Thurgau and Bacchus, named after the Greco-Roman god of wine. As I said an unusual lot and customer would be excused for having never heard of them. They make very dry whites similar to the German mould. The black grapes planted are equally barmy; Dornfelder and Rondo make early ripening reds, both of these grapes have good floral and fruit flavours with the Rondo lighter in body and the Dornfelder closer to Syrah in style and weight.

As well as these groups of grapes there has been the increase in planting of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and this is for the jewel in the English wine crown, English sparkling wine.  With recent climate change working for the English and with similar soils to Champagne we are able to make outstanding sparkling wine. It rivals a lot of good Champagne in both its quality and unfortunately its price. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are the three grape used in making Champagne and all three are capable of growing well in England. The production methods are also the same as in Champagne production with a secondary fermentation process taking place in the bottle to produce the rich toasty, biscuity flavours apparent in Champagne.

Nyetimber is reputed to be the first English sparkling wine to truly rival champagne. Producing only sparkling wines, they have really made a name for themselves. The Classic Cuvee is their signature style. It is always a vintage vine and is bottle aged (the secondary fermentation process) for three years before release. It has a wonderful brioche flavour and a finely acidic mid-palate, like you would expect from good Champagnes, and a delicate and fruitful nose. Being a vintage wine it changes subtly with each release and, like vintage Champagne, is only released on the better years. This wine uses all of the champagne grapes in its blend, but they also produce a Blanc de Blanc which uses just Chardonnay and a Rose which includes Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, a little of the Pinot being fermented with the grape skin to extract the Rose colour. These wines are perfect and prices are similar to non-vintage Champagne, about 26 quid.

Another house of note is Chapel Down in Kent. Likewise Chapel Down produces a good range of sparkling wines. Their sparkling Rose is probably my favourite sparkling Rose outside of Champagne. It has deft strawberry flavours, blended with a delicate biscuitiness, which follows from nose to palate. Its bubbles are for me a little large and violent, and when I first saw this I wasn’t impressed, but it is so well crafted that this doesn’t really matter. At about £22 it is very well priced for what it is. I should make it clear at this point that Rose wine should only ever be drunk in sparkling form, still Rose is just hopeless. Chapel Down sparkling range also include some really good Pinot based wines that are complex in structure and rich in flavour, but their still wines deserve some attention. Of their whites I would recommend the Bacchus, which harbours exotic aromas of lychee, rose petals and herbs, with flavours of white pepper, confected pear and red apple. It is a dry wine, with enough flavour to complement a range of foods from salads or fish, through to roast white meats. The second of their whites to mention is the Flint Dry. Like its name suggests this wine is dry with real stoney, steely flavours accompanying citrus, pear and melon. It is a really refreshing wine and would be a superb partner to fish. The make a smaller number of red wines, red wine production being a smaller industry in general in England, the one for me was their Pinot Noir. This Pinot is just slightly lighter than most French Pinot Noir (especially Burgundy Pinot), but has a lot more to it than German Pinot. Its complex red berry nose carries through to the palate where it combines with earthy and black pepper notes. Like most Pinot Noir this would be matched excellently with casseroles or roasted meats.

So there we have a brief glimpse into the burgeoning English wine market. It hasn’t necessarily done a huge amount to rouse my patriotism but when the misery of the England fixtures of Euro 2012 are over I might just need to reach for a bottle.