Wine from the United Kingdom is generally classified as either English wine or Welsh wine, with reference to England or Wales as its respective origin. The term British wine is generally used for fermented imported grape juice or concentrate that can originate from anywhere in the world, and so is not used for wine in the usual sense. Traditionally seen as struggling with an unhelpfully cold climate, the English and Welsh wine industry has been helped by the warmer British summers over recent years and it is speculated that global warming may encourage major growth in the future. However no evidence of earlier crops has yet been produced to substantiate this.[1]
The United Kingdom is a major consumer, but only a very minor producer of wine, with English and Welsh wine sales combined accounting for just 1% of the domestic market.[2]
In recent years, English sparkling wine has started to emerge[3] as the UK wine style receiving the most attention. Theale Vineyard Sparkling Chardonnay 2003 beat off stiff competition from fine Champagnes and top sparkling wines to make it into the world’s Top Ten Sparkling Wine at the world’s only dedicated sparkling wine competition, French-based Effervescents du Monde (sparkling wines of the world) 2007.
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The limestone soils of Kent and other portions of southern England are suitable for growing the grapes used to produce sparkling wine, and particularly on south-facing slopes, the climate, at least in recent years, is warm enough.[3] At the last official count, the Wine Standards Board reported that there were just over 350 vineyards producing wine throughout England.[4] The largest of these is Denbies Vineyard in Surrey which, as of mid-2007, has 265 acres (1.07 km2) of vines, although Chapel Down Wines near Tenterden in Kent, has the biggest winery and produces more wine, and will soon overtake Denbies.
Two notable English Vineyards, The Three Choirs Vineyards, in Gloucestershire, set in 70 acres (280,000 m2) of countryside and is one of England's leading wine award winners. Sharpham Vineyard in Devon mixes a range of traditional and new world techniques to create their crisp taste in their white wines. Yearlstone Vineyard near Exeter has won many awards and at 37 years old is one of England's oldest surviving vineyards.
"English wine" is also a common generic term used in India meaning "Western spirits".
According to the Wine Standards Board, there are currently 17 operational vineyards in Wales.
Chef Peter Gottgens, owner of the Ardeonaig Hotel in Perthshire, planned to produce a white Riesling wine in 2010 to serve his hotel guests.It would be the first wine produced in Scotland in commercial quantities. Gottens had planted 48 vines as an experiment in 2006, and planned to expand this to 800. Gottens said: “Cold is not the problem, the lack of sunshine is our biggest problem. If the wine is fit for consumption it will be served by the glass with our food. If it's not good enough we can make it into vinegar.” [5]
The term British wine is commonly used to describe a drink which is made in Britain by fermenting imported grape juice or concentrate that can originate from anywhere in the world. The most common style is a medium or sweet high-strength wine that is similar to sherry.[6]
The Romans introduced wine making to the United Kingdom, and even tried to grow grapes as far north as Lincolnshire. It was successfully done till the cooling in the 800s although the remnants of this can still be seen to this day in the city of Lincoln in the gardens of the medieval Bishop's Palace. Winemaking continued at least down to the time of the Normans with over 40 vineyards in England mentioned in the Domesday Book, although much of what was being produced was for making communion wine for the Eucharist.
From the Middle Ages, the English market was the main customer of clarets from Bordeaux, France, helped by the Plantagenet kingdom, which included England and large provinces in France. In the 18th century, the Methuen Treaty of 1703 imposed high duties on French wine. This led to the English becoming a main consumer of sweet fortified wines like sherry, port wine, and Madeira wine from Spain and Portugal. Fortified wine became popular because unlike regular wine, it does not spoil after the long journey from Portugal to England.
When Henry VIII came into power in 1509, 139 vineyards were recorded, 11 of which produced as Royal vineyards, dedicated to the monarchy.
Just as English wine began to recover from the epidemics of Phylloxera and Powdery Mildew in the mid 19th Century, brought back with the Explorers of New America, commercial English wine was dealt a heavy blow. In 1860 the government, under Lord Palmerston (Liberal) supported free trade and drastically cut the tax on imported wines from 1 shilling to 2 pence, a decrease of 83%. English wine was therefore out-competed by superior foreign products that could be sold at a lower cost to the customer. The twilight of British winemaking tradition, which stretched back to the very first Roman explorers, was brought to an end with the onset of the First World War, as the need for crops and food took priority over wine production. The rationing of sugar pushed the knife even deeper until, for the first time in 2000 years, English wines were no longer being produced in either Wessex, nor the rest of the country.
Later in the 19th century, many upper and upper-middle class people started to drink wines from many parts of Europe like France, Spain, Italy and Germany.
It was not until 1936, that George Ordish planted vines in Wessex and the South of England, bringing about a voyage of rediscovery for English wines and wine making. With many individuals keen to produce their own wines from home, and with equipment and methods becoming more available, the government outlawed the production of homemade alcohol at the beginning of the 1960s, only to retract the law after 5 years as the homebrew fashion escalated considerably. After a lull in the 80s and 90s, homebrewing is coming back, with many small and established brew shops seeing a rise in sales and increased interest through Internet sales. A great number of books and recipes are now readily and freely available and as the recession hit hard in the UK in 2008, more and more people, young and old are turning to traditional methods of wine and beer production.
Viticulture was revived in the 1970s onwards. The first English wines were influenced by the sweet German wines like Liebfraumilch and Hock that were popular in the 1970s, and were blended white and red sweet wines, called cream wine (creams). The largest vineyard in England is Denbies Wine Estate in Surrey, which has 265 acres (1.07 km2) under vines, and a visitors' centre that is open all year round.
The growth of English wine has had its ups and downs since then. A peak of over 400 vineyards was reached in the late 1980s. By 2000 one third of these had given up . Plantings accelerated in the last decade, helped by the growing success of English sparkling wines, led by Nyetimber. In 2004 a panel judging European sparkling wines awarded most of the top ten positions to English wines - the remaining positions going to French Champagnes. Similar results have encouraged an explosion of sparkling wine plantings. English still wines too have begun to pick up awards at most big wine competitions, notably Decanter, and the IWSC.
Winemaking has spread from the South East and South West and also to the Midlands and the north of England, with Yorkshire, Shropshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Lancashire boasting at least one vineyard each as of 2007.
Significant plantings have been happening across the south of the country with a number of farmers contract growing vines for some of the major English producers. Farmers are looking at the potential benefits of growing vines as the return per tonne for grapes over more traditional crops are not to be ignored. A field of wheat might yield 3 tonnes per acre at around £120 per tonne. Growing grapes could yield 3 to 4 tonnes per acre at around £950 to £1100 per tonne. One concern is that growers need to invest money for no initial return, as crops tend to come in the third or fourth year. Another concern is that grape production in the climate is highly variable: "In England, it is only in about 2 years in every 10 that grape production will be really good, 4 years will be average and 4 years poor or terrible - largely due to weather and/or disease exacerbated by weather." However English vineyards share in common European weather patterns so 2006 was a bumper year, 2007 saw ripe grapes but low volumes, 2008 was very poor, but both 2009 and 2010 were good years.[7] Total British cereal production is not so variable.[8]
Another explanation for the growth in viticulture in the UK is the local food movement, and the desire by consumers to cut the amount of food miles connected with the produce that they buy, including locally produced wine.
On March 1, 2011 a website was launched to act as a platform for those involved in the professional production of wine in England and Wales. ukvine.com was the brainchild of James Graham and Daniel Manning, both of whom felt the industry had reached a tipping point in terms of value, volume and interest. The site acts as a platform for news and feature copy relevant to all sectors of the industry: growers, producers, retailers, the on-trade and off-trade and the consumer. Initial reaction to the site has been strong and favourable.
It was an outstanding year for English and Welsh wines at the International Wine Challenge (IWC) 2011 as organisers revealed the results on the first day of the London International Wine Fair (LIWF). Wales celebrated a Silver medal while 66 English wines from 22 vineyards picked up awards or were commended. Two Gold medals awarded to two English vineyards made the national headlines while a Silver medal for the Parva Farm vineyard’s Tintern Parva Bacchus 2009 went back to the principality. Fourteen other wines won Silver medals while 20 won Bronze medals. Commendations were given to 30 wines. Denbies Wine Estate’s Chalk Ridge Rosé 2010 was the only still Rosé to win a 2011 Gold Medal and Chapel Down was awarded a Gold Medal for its sparkling Rosé Vintage Reserve Brut NV.
According to the English Wine Producers over 1300 HA had been planted by 2009, and with further major plantings of sparkling wine varieties the total is likely to be in excess of 1500 HA by 2012. As of 2004, Seyval Blanc was the most grown variety, with Reichensteiner next, with Müller-Thurgau and then Bacchus following closely behind. However, Müller-Thurgau, which was one of the first to be grown during the 20th century renaissance (see below), has recently lost favour, dropping from 134.64 ha (1st) in 1996 to 81.1 ha (3rd) in 2004. Other widely grown varieties of white grape include Chardonnay, Madeleine Angevine, Schönburger, Huxelrebe and Ortega. Red varieties include Dornfelder, Pinot meunier and Pinot Noir, and a few others, but red grapes tend to be lesser grown, with 20184 hL of white wine and only 5083 hL of red wine made in 2006.[9][10][11]
Most of the wine consumed in Britain is imported from other countries. Now that English wine is being produced in larger quantities, more people in the British Isles are buying it as opposed to imported wines. The quantities produced are tiny compared to the volumes consumed, less than 1% according to DEFRA. In 2008 1.34 million, in 2009 3.17 million[12] and 2010 4 million bottles of English wine were produced.[13]
Supermarkets tend to sell all wines at the market rate irrespective of their country of origin.
Currently, most English wines have a £7 - £12 pricetag, with Sparkling wines likely to cost up to as much as £45. However there are still several small vineyards around the country that continue to produce on a small scale, sourcing local markets and farm shops, where you can expect to pay as little as £6 for a bottle.
There are several official categories of wine in the UK.PDO, Protected Denomination of Origin is the top category, PGI, Protected Geographical Indication is next and then varietal wine. PDO & PGI wines must have a full post bottling analysis and pass a tasting panel ( or win an award at a recognised competition )
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