|
Wine News
Still white wine sparkles in UK competition
by Sandra Clement
Wednesday, July 09, 2008All the recent buzz surrounding the UK’s wines has been about the quality of our home-grown sparklers, but now a still white wine has taken the top prize in this year’s English & Welsh Wine of the Year Competition.
Three Choirs Vineyards won the Wine of the Year trophy for its 2006 Estate Reserve Siegerrebe. Siegerrebe is an aromatic variety which can produce outstanding wines when grown on the right site. The man behind the wine, Martin Fowke, was also named Winemaker of the Year.
Last year’s highest award-winner Camel Valley scooped the Best Sparkling Wine trophy with its ‘Cornwall’ White Pinot 2005. The producer also won golds for its ‘Cornwall’ Pinot Noir Rosé 2005 as well as its 2006 Bacchus, which is another white aromatic variety that produces a successsful style in the UK.
Meanwhile, Nyetimber’s newly released 2001 vintage wines both took gold medals as did RidgeView ‘s 2005 Merret Bloomsbury and Merret Cavendish. Other gold recipients were Denbies Wine Estate for its Rose Hill 2007 rosé, Warden Abbey Vineyard for its Bacchus 2006 and Eglantine Vineyard for its late-harvest sweet North Star 2004 dessert wine.
The Best Red Wine was again awarded to a Pinot Noir. This was Titchfield Vineyards’ 2006, which got a silver.
The competition was judged by a seven-strong team of Masters of Wine, chaired by Patricia Stefanowicz MW. She said, ‘Professionalism and quality in grape-growing and winemaking has shone through, and the range of different producers now winning top awards shows just how good the standards are. This is a serious competition.’
In total 11 golds, 46 silvers and 74 bronzes were awarded, more than in the previous two years. All the results can be found at English & Welsh Wine of the Year Results.
|
Interviews and News for Denbies | UK Wine Show 52 Denbies Wine Tourism with Chris White |  | Denbies is England's largest vineyard and attracts 300,000 visitors a year. General Manager and son of the owner, Chris White, lets us in on the secret of Denbies' success. | UK Wine Show 53 Julia Trustram Eve English Wine Producers |  | This week is English Wine Week so we met up with Julia Trustram Eve, Marketing Manager for English Wine Producers, the Marketing Association for the English Wine Industry. We discuss issues including new Brussels legislation and global warming. |
Interviews and News for Three Choirs | UK Wine Show 106 Martin Fowkes of Three Choirs |  | Martin Fowkes is winemaker and director at Three Choirs, the leading single-estate vineyard in the UK. Martin looks back at the 2007 vintage when floods hit the region. |
Interviews and News for Pinot Noir | UK Wine Show 28 Matthew Jukes |  | Wine expert Matthew Jukes writes the Daily Mail wine column and his Top 250 is the UKs no.1 wine guide. We talk about life as a wine writer and get Matthew's recommendations for Christmas 2006 drinking. | UK Wine Show 61 Louis Latour on Burgundy negociants |  | Maison Louis Latour is one of the most highly-respected negociants in Burgundy. We speak to Louis Latour about the activities of a negociant and their role in producing and selling Burgundy's wine.
| UK Wine Show 83 Blair and Estelle Hunt of Bald Hills Central Otago |  | Blair and Estelle Hunt own Bald Hills in Central Otago, New Zealand. Their 2005 Pinot Noir scooped Champion Red at the International Wine Challenge in 2007 attracting huge interest. We visited the vineyard to find out more. | UK Wine Show 27 Mt Difficulty Michael Herrick |  | Mt Difficulty is a top producer of Pinot Noir in Central Otago, New Zealand. Michael Herrick talks to us about the wines being produced at Mt Difficulty and techniques employed in the vineyard. | NZ wine bounty grows by 39% | New Zealand’s grape harvest has come in 39% bigger than last year. | Fake Pinot Noir sold to the US | A wine scandal has emerged involving falsely-labelled Pinot Noir from the Aude region of France. |
Interviews and News for England | UK Wine Show 3 Owen Elias from Chapel Down |  | Owen Elias from Chapel Down talks to us about winemaking in the UK and how the industry has changed over the last decade from amateur hobbyist to professional business. | UK plants more vines | Vineyard plantings in the UK continue to increase according to the latest DEFRA figures which show there are 1,106 hectares now under vine. | English wine week is 29 May-6 June | English Wine Week kicks off this week from Saturday 29th May to Sunday 6th June with a countrywide campaign to promote English wines. |
|
