UK Vineyards Guide 2008, by Stephen Skelton
83 out of 100

Published Monday, August 4, 2008

Overview

Stephen's latest book, UK Vineyards Guide 2008, builds on his previous book, The Wines of Britain and Ireland. According to Stephen he has attempted in the latest book to provide references to every vineyard in the UK.

As with all books the question for the book is what it for is. This book is a no holds barred reference book and it does it very well. The book is divided into two parts, the first part gives a history of viticulture in the British Isles and the structure of English viticulture, including tables on production and area under vine. Part 2 is an A to Z listing of every vineyard in the UK.

In Part 1, the history is divided into three chapters: chapter 1 pre-Romans to 1939, then chapter 2 looks like 1939 to 1951 the revival where English viticulture was born again. And finally modern English winemaking from 1952 onwards. Chapters 4 and 5 look at the English and regional vineyard associations which manage English wine. Chapter 6 gives a good overview of viticulture and vinification, including the root selection, trellising and equipment. Chapter 7 gives a great overview of varieties with some excellent statistics on grape plantings, for example the top planted grape variety in the UK in 2007 was Pinot Noir! Chapter 8 gives a very good set of descriptions for grapes grown in England, particularly varieties that are grown here exclusively, and the information can be missing or at least very thin on the ground.

Part 2 of the UK Vineyard Guide has a full list of all the vineyards in alphabetical order which is an improvement for me compared to the listing by region in his previous book. I find this much more useful to find the wineries, if you want to know the wineries in your area you can find an index of vineyards by county at the beginning of part 2. The descriptions for the vineyards range from very brief to quite extensive, but this is in keeping with the size and commercial interest in the vineyard. At the very least they give contact details, main varieties grown and size of the vineyard. In their fullest the descriptions give a full history and context within the rest of the UK viticulture scene.

The final section is the Appendix and here Stephen has added unusual information from historical awards to how Christopher Merrett wrote in the Royal Society in 1662 how English coopers add sugar and molasses to make sparkling wines a full 6 years before Dom Perignon (widely touted by the French as the inventor of sparkling wines) arrived at the Abbey of Hautvillers.

What I like about the book is the up to date statistics on English wine whether it be grape varieties, size of winery or yields. Stephen has it all.

But, the book lacks maps and any discussion on geology or climate which would be very useful. Nor does Stephen pass any comment on the quality of the wines produced from those listed in the book. So while an index of vineyards is great and there is some fantastic information, I would like to have had some way of deciding whether to visit a winery or not. My only other gripe is that much of Part 1 has been lifted from his previous book.

In conclusion, if you are into UK wine and do not own the earlier book then the UK Vineyards Guide 2008 really is an essential reference book. It has great statistics, background information and is a superb index of all wine producers. If you have the earlier work and you are not so interested in statistics then you may want to consider missing this version and picking up another edition in a couple of years. Personally while I have the previous version, I am very happy to have this book on my bookshelf and will be referring to it quite a bit.
I rate this book 83 out of 100.