Darling Editor Karine Torr chats to Stewart Wilde, author of Sparkling Wine: Vineyards of England and Wales
It is now over forty years since I tasted my first English wine at a small vineyard in Cornwall. I cannot remember its name or its actual location as we were was on holiday at the time. Wine, however, was no stranger to me as my parents always had wine in the house for those occasions that required special celebrations. I was born in Sheffield in 1938 and graduated from University in 1964. I moved to London with my family in 1986. By qualification I am an Architect and had practised in both the public and private sectors, in the North of England and here in London, until 1992 when a stint of working in a wine shop inspired me to change direction.
A whole new world of interest opened up to me. I became fascinated by the wine industry, and by English wines in particular. The potential is enormous, especially for sparkling wines now that climate change has made it possible for us to grow many of the European grape varieties here on home soil.
England is right on the northern edge of the climatic (latitude) band for growing wine grapes. This means we do not have the strength in the sun, and we do not have the daylight hours to ripen the grapes. Although we are a nation of wine drinkers, we also have the most open market for wine and therefore tend to drink wine from other countries rather than our own. Also, our expertise was not very sophisticated in the early days of the 1960’s and ‘70’s. Now, very surprisingly to most traditional wine-lovers, sparkling wines have become our forte as geologically and geographically many parts of the U.K. are similar to the Champagne region of France, and many of our vineyards are now producing sparkling wines that are being judged consistently better than Champagne, the benchmark for sparkling wines, in international competition. It’s an amazing story.
Considering that there are nearly 800 vineyards in the U.K. the direction of the book had to be carefully considered. As English sparkling wine has now become a major force on the world market this appeared to be the way to go. But with over 100 vineyards producing sparkling wine the question was what criteria to use? In the end, in conjunction with WineGB who have developed a marketing strategy to encourage people to enjoy English wine by visiting the vineyards that produce them and where many producers have their sales outlet, I decided on the guide-book approach. Hence the book features a selection of vineyards, large and small, where the visitor is welcome and is invited to taste a selection of the sparkling wine produced.
Some of the vineyards featured have become national names, however, there are many that are not. Those that are not are frequently in out of the way places and may be difficult to find but are, by necessity dependent on visitors to sell their wines. Some of these have photographs, provided by themselves, included within the text of the book and these show the scenery, and surroundings, of these vineyards. The scenery gives some indications of the many influences that determine the character and taste of the sparkling wine. The grape varieties chosen for the blend will also influence this character and taste.
There are over a dozen vineyards in the Surrey region with nearly half of them in the environs of Guildford. A number of our Surrey vineyards have already gained International recognition for the quality of their wines and export these wines to many countries worldwide.
Denbies Wine Estate in Dorking is a powerhouse in the UK wine industry, having been in existence for nearly 35 years. It is, at present, the largest wine producing single site vineyard in the UK and is a leading member of the ‘Vineyards of the Surrey Hills’ marketing group. The vineyard is located within an area that was known for its wines in Roman times. Its wines have been given many National and International awards and medals and its wines, in a number of forms both sparkling and still, are readily available in our shops. Some favourites wines are ‘Whitedown NV’,‘Rose’ and ‘Greenfields’.
Other vineyards include Albury, with their ‘Blanc de Blancs’ and ‘Sparkling Rose’, Godstone, Greyfriars (‘Sparkling Cuvee NV’) and High Clandon.
These vineyards often have their wines regularly reviewed in the wine writing press and you can even stay overnight at one or two of them and some offer facilities for social gatherings and weddings.
There’s so much to explore, visit and taste!
