English Wine Overview with Julia Trustram-Eve of Wine GB
This show was published 26 June 2021
- English Wine Overview with Julia Trustram-Eve of Wine GB
Overview
Julia Trustram-Eve of Wine GB gives us an update on the English wine scene over the last few years and emerging styles and innovation. The warm summer of 2018 produced biggest crop ever, with ripe fruit giving some producers the opportunity to experiment and produce quality still wines rather than just focus on sparkling wines.
Bacchus is the key white wine and while its designed for drinking young can age well due to the acidity. Rose is also a popular style which can be made from a range of grapes and blends. Reds from Pinot Noir but also from grapes like Rondo are improving in quality, Wine GB judges impressed with the quality of the reds at this year's awards.
We talk about canned wines which a few producers have launched recently. The fizz in cans is carbonated (not traditional method) but is introducing new drinkers to the English wine category and are more entry level wines vs the traditional English fizz. 'Great British Classic Method' is the term now being used for traditional method sparkling wines, a serious category which competes alongside Champagne.
As of 2021 there are c.800 vineyards in the UK and 178 wineries. The wineries often make wine on contract for the smaller vineyards. In terms of bottles, in 2018 30 million bottles were produced compared to a smaller vintage of 8.7 million bottles in 2020 but overall the 5 year average is increasing both in terms of volume and new plantings.
The Wine GB awards is consumer focused, with Susie Barrie MW and Oz Clarke as co-chairs and a fantastic line up of judges who go through a vigorous process to select the medal-winning wines. This year there were many new entrants from new vineyards and, for the first time, wines with the Sustainable Wines of GB accreditation were judged. Exciting times!
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Music
The music used for the UK Wine Show is Griffes de Jingle 1 by Marcel de la Jartèle and Silence by Etoile Noire.