English Wine Producers Tasting on St George's Day

I have here a report I wrote on English Wine Week last Thursday. Sorry I have not posted it sooner I have been running around with dinners, cricket, politics etc the last couple of days but here it is:
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I have just attended the English wine week preview tasting. It was set to be a good one this year with events all over the country from Cornwall to Yorkshire. Today’s launch is a mouth early as they thought it would be a prohibited to hold it on St George Day, but the English Wine Week itself is from Saturday 23rd till Sunday 31st of May. So if you’re keen on your wine I would say take a couple days off to go up or down to a vineyard. You can even sleep over at some of them, have a good meal and enjoy some exciting wines. You can find out what going on where HERE.
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The same week our Celtic brothers in Wales are have their wine week so why not take a break at Ancre Hill Estates, Monmouth where they are launching their first release of a white wine made primary from Seyval Blanc.
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Today’s fun was at the Chelsea Football Club, Stanford Bridge. Stalls were set out separated by region. The main table was for the mass wines separated into sections of wine type. I feel today event sums-up English wine as it was a professional operation featuring a mix of slick commercial wine houses mixing in with amateur small wineries. There was still a lot of wine being made with off-dry Germanic grapes. They might be interesting grapes but they are still and I think always will be wines for people in the know.
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The pick of the whites for me today where:
The two Wickham's from Hampshire, Special Release Fume 2008, £8.50; could be French.
The other Wickham is there Vintage Selection Dry 2008 for £6.75; it is a simple wine with a lot going on.
Two from Leventhorpe from right at the top of England in Yorkshire, £7; this little powerful dry white has hints of apple and other green fruit it would turn even the syncs of English wine to lovers.
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I went over to the nation’s favourite wine in the summer months, Rose. If any country should be able to make a rose it's England, as it is the most popular wine in pubs. We have seen what the new world bland pub rose' do and I was hoping for something new and exciting. I just found that we are making boring bland wines. There was one wine which stood out and gave me hope for our roses:
Lady Geraldine's Blush 2006 from Ickworth, a National Trust estate in Bury St. Edmunds, and well worth a visit during English wine week or in-fact any time if passing. There Lady Geraldine's Blush is 100% Rondo and is a dry rose which is pack with subtle flavours of blackberry, damson and redcurrant's. The flavours come together instead of insulting your pallet with bold, over powering, almost article flavours you might find in other English roses.
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Reds have never been the English strong point there is a lot of heavy imbalance wines but I did come across some gems:
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There two wines from Welcombe Hills, Stratford. This vine yard on land once owned by Shakespeare’s family is worth a look at. Their experimental Pinot Noir Special Reserve £10.95; don't read to much in the reserve bit, that is just there to make it sound good but do read the special as it is a special as it was aged in 3 oaks it comes out with an extremely pale colour which might put of a traditionalist who will judge a book by it cover (or wine by it colour) but they did not muck around with it, they kept it with a pale red, almost see-through. When you drink the wine it does something most English reds don't do, that is to make you think. There is a lot going on, with cherry flavours and a smoke taste coming off the oaks. Their other wines which are worth a look at is the Pinot Noir, Precoce blend they can boast to be one of two in the country to grow Precoce. This wine has a lovely soft red cherry flavour to it.
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Going back to Wickham there is a Special Reserve Red 2006, Pinot Noir, £11.99; is worth a buy and keep back for Christmas 2010 as by then it will be a great well balance wine with its dark cherry and blackberry to make perfect with you Christmas dinner.
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Two from Bookers in West Susex, their Pinot Noir, £10.95; is a new world flavoured Pinot Noir. It could have been take off the ship for New Zealand with its red cherry and red plum. The other one is there Dark Havest 2006, £8.95; its packet with light fruits like a fruit salad bar, a great one if you’re not normally a red drinker not to dissimilar to a Italian Primitivo.
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England might be on the up with their whites, learning about Rosa and finding out that Pinot Noir should be the grape of choice for UK Reds. But our sparkling is just brilliant. There are so many I could pick.
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The Ridge View wines are and have been, as long as I have been tasting them, a first class wine. I have written about them before HERE. There whole range is worth a couple of glasses. I was happy to find out that they are expanding and will be even better place to take the French on at there own game.
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There were other big boys present like Chapel Down and the excellent Nyetimber but, I found my self drawn to the new guys, wines which will be household names in 5 years who came with a well presented package. They had pro PR guys running their stalls, I was ready to demise these houses, as Barack Obama once said as “a pig in lipstick” but, I was wrong.
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The Balfour Brut Rose is by far UK's best sparkling rose it could almost be Champaign Gosset. A good balance of flavours, redcurrant, strawberry and pears which can all be found on the nose, a perfect wine for the 'season' of Ascot, Wimbledon and Henley. Now don't think this is a small guy making good, this is a slick well organised operation, but who said this is a bad thing if they can make the wine to match their slick PR. It comes from the Richard Balfour-Lynn who is responsible for Hush Heath apple juice, Hotel Du Vin, Malmaison Hotel, Liberty’s of London and other luxury companies. You won’t find this wine in supermarkets just yet as they are starting in indie wine shops around London first, as well as in all their hotels, but in time they will be the sparkling rose of chose for middle England.