There are ladybirds in wine. This startling bit of information rang out like a
gunshot amid a host of facts I tried to absorb on an hours-long lecture and
tour of the British winemaking process in celebration of English
Wine Week (May 24 to June 1).
As we wandered through Bookers
Vineyard, a diminutive estate in green and leafy Sussex, near Haywards
Heath, I learnt everything I’d ever wanted to know about wine, and quite a
few things I didn’t care to.
Turns out a minute number of the tiny red-and-black invertebrates clinging on
to vines get crushed up with the berries every autumn harvest. More than a
handful and an entire barrel can be spoilt, said my guide Duncan Monroe, but
not to worry, just a few makes little difference.
On a sunny day at the picturesque vineyards, citron-green nascent vines fanned
out across the well-ordered acres, while kestrels soared overhead; it could
have been Chablis.
Despite a prodigious ability to quaff the stuff, Brits are better known for
their beer than their bubbly. It’s a huge frustration to vintners like
Samantha Pratt who took over Bookers from her father, Rodney, who had
established the vineyard in 1972.
It wasn’t always this way Monroe explained in the solarium café in the
vineyard’s main barn before we headed out. Cuttings of grapevines were
brought over by the Romans nearly 2,000 years ago, and were found to thrive
in the rich English soil. The industry blossomed into the Middle Ages - the
Domesday Book makes mention of 46 winemaking operations. By the mid-16th
century there were 150, some quite large.
So why then do sommeliers look to places like Bordeaux and Champagne and not
Gloucestershire and Kent? "Climate change," said Mr Munroe – but
not in the way you may think. Turns out England was a few degrees hotter
back then, weather in which grapes flourished. Global cooling that saw the
Thames frozen solid some winters crippled the industry.
By the time the 20th century rolled around there was not a single British wine
producer until pioneers in the 1950s, recognising the green and pleasant
land’s similarities to German terrain, planted hardy Teutonic vines. Now
there are more than 400 British vineyards.
Mr Monroe was a wealth of knowledge on all subjects grape-related which he
conveyed to me and a small gaggle of wine-challenged individuals who trailed
him between the vines and through the grape pressing and wine bottling
factories. We had hoped to leave as fledgling oenophiles but we departed fit
to be yeomen grape farmers, so versed were we in root aphids (Aphis
Illinoisensis, in case you wanted to know), vine husbandry, yeast cultures
and the bacteria that plagues cork (that’s Trichloroanisole).
By the time we got to the tedious bottling and labelling room, without a
droplet of wine having passed our lips, I wondered if I was part of some
sort of sick joke – wine, wine everywhere, but not a drop to drink.
When I did get to quaff some wine, the 100 per cent Pinot Noir was a light
cherry tasting red, highly drinkable but with few of the lingering notes
you'd expect to find on, say, a New World wine above the £10 mark. The label
flagged up hints of bacon and cedar wood. I sensed the latter but you really
had to search your palate for the meatiness. Not much fun if you're
vegetarian like me.
An astute friend pointed out that amateurs seeking wine knowledge want a very
specific sort: just enough to seem cultured when they’re ordering a bottle
and add a few key facts to their date-impressing arsenal.
While I gained a few zingers, (I can’t wait to use, “Did you know that
‘corked’ does not mean the wine has bits of cork floating it in, rather that
it has been contaminated with Trichloroanisole from cork bark?’”) I glazed
over during pollination and skin-skimming explanations. This trip is for the
vineyard enthusiast, not just those who like enthusiastically topping up
their glass.
Red Letter Days
offer a four-hour Vineyard tour and wine tasting, with buffet lunch, at
Bookers vineyard, near Haywards Heath in Sussex for £39 per person.
Six English wines worth tasting
2006 Midsummer Hill, Three Choirs, Gloucestershire, England, The Wine
Society (01438 740222), £5.25. This perfect summer apéritif has a
light, floral, grapey, hedgerow scent and verdant grassy palate. Made from a
blend of hardy seyval blanc,reichensteiner and madeleine angevine.
2006 Stone Brook, Three Choirs, Gloucestershire, England, The Wine Society,
£6.50. Celebrate English wine week over the next seven days with
this elegant schönburger grape-based white, which is a degree bolder than
the Midsummer and overflows with ripe elderflower scents.
2005 Cornwall Brut, Camel Valley, £16.95. The latest vintage of
the sparkling wine that often beats champagne in tastings is released at
Easter and should be as good as ever. Light, fruity, persistent bubbles.
2005 Sharpham Barrel Fermented Dry £11. Made in South Devon from
madeline angevin grapes and one of few English wines fermented in new oak
barriques. Complex flavours, Good finesse.
Sherborne Castle Special Reserve, Dorset, £5.95. A popular blend
of seyval blanc, bacchus and schonburger grown on the castle estate and
available from the castle shop. Light, fresh and fruity.
2004 Cellar Door Four Oaks, Three Choirs, £10.50. Made exclusively
from regent grapes, matured for three months in French and American oak
barrels. Woody plum flavours, stands up to red meat.
