Not so long ago, the idea of English wine was considered to be a bit of a joke. Certainly, it was a minority interest, and I remember feeling that I may have exposed myself as a bumpkin when I first took a bottle of local fizz to a dinner party.
Not any more. Since 2000, the amount of land cultivated for wine production has nearly tripled, according to the En- glish Wine Producers trade organization, making wine one of the fastest-growing agricultural products in the UK. A white wine grown in Norfolk was even named the best in the world by a panel of international experts at the Decanter World Wine Awards 2017.
Warmer weather is part of the reason. The UK now has a climate to rival the Champagne region of France — and indeed, two French champagne houses, Taittinger and Vranken-Pommery, recently announced plans to produce sparkling wine in England.
I always thought I was reasonably au fait with the domestic wine-making scene — and that “scene”, to my mind, was firmly set in the green fields of the English and Welsh countryside. So it’s been a surprise to find that the story has now moved to the back streets of London.
My former Guardian colleague Victor Keegan, who has been championing British wine since long before it was fashionable, wrote recently on his blog London, My London (www.londonmylondon.co.uk), of a “mini-boom” in wineries in the capital. The first to arrive was London Cru in west London in 2013, joined in 2016 by Renegade Wines on the east side of town. Both produce bottles exclusively from English grapes, as well as making wines using grapes from continental Europe. In August 2017, Renegade announced that its first English sparkling wine was now “ageing in the crypt of a famous London church”, ready for sale before Christmas.
The fashion for city winemaking is not limited to London — it turns out there are now hundreds of urban wineries worldwide, especially in the US, with tasting rooms often doubling as cafes.In fact, Renegade’s co-founder Warwick Smith says he was inspired by the success of the concept in the US and the “quality of the fruits” growing in the UK. “The big advantage we have over traditional producers,” he adds, “is that we can throw away the rule book when it comes to established techniques.”
However, as Keegan points out, the new wineries of London represent more of a revival than a revolution. Although none have been seen for a century until recently, he quotes the naturalist Thomas Pennant, who observed in the late 1700s how “the genial banks of the Thames opposite to our capital yield almost every species of white wine”. Perhaps a good business idea, like wine, simply improves with age.