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English Sparkling Wine: Exton Park’s Reserve Blend wines
This is where Exton Park stands out from the crowd. They have just released their Reserve Blend range, a trio of Traditional Method sparkling wines made from a 10-year-old library of reserve wines. Usually even Non-Vintage wines rely on a base vintage, but Exton Park are happy to challenge classic winemaking conventions and do things differently.
Wednesday Wine Women: @drink.folc
Elisha co-founded folc in 2020 with her partner Tom, with the ambition to create a high quality English rosé with a modern mindset. She knew that their customers wanted transparency, sustainability and inclusiveness at the heart of the wine they are buying and that's exactly how folc produces their English wine.
English wine? English? Wine?
When the rest of the world thinks about England, they most likely think of red phone boxes, the Queen, cups of tea and rain. They probably don’t think about wine. Oh, we Brits LOVE wine – we guzzle gallons of the stuff, I’m sure you know that. But we actually make it too. We MAKE it! And we make it pretty darn well.
Defined Wine: The UK’s First Contract-Only Winery
Defined Wine was set up in 2018 by Henry Sugden to make wine for other people. Defined owns no vineyards or brands – they purely act as the vessel to bring their clients’ visions to life, with as little or as much involvement as the client desires. The client defines the experience when it comes to making their wine.
Blue Aurora English Blueberry Wine
Did you know that wine doesn’t have to be made from grapes? The definition of ‘wine’ in the Cambridge English Dictionary is ‘an alcoholic drink that is usually made from grapes, but can also be made from other fruits or flowers’. Well, in this case it’s made from blueberries.
Winning Wines from Hambledon Vineyard for English Wine Week
In a blind tasting organised by Noble Rot magazine in 2015, one English vineyard came ahead of Pol Roger, Taittinger and Veuve Clicquot, bagging the highest score of all the wines tasted. Located on Hampshire’s South Downs, on the Newhaven Chalk formation, Hambledon Vineyard possesses the same terroir that can be found in the very best sites of the Côte des Blancs in Champagne - could this be the reason it produces such winning wines?
Harvest Supper with Simpsons Wines at The Pig at Bridge Place
The Pig Hotel at Bridge Place in Canterbury is a sight for sore eyes in the late afternoon sun in October. The period country house stands proudly in the beautifully manicured grounds – not too manicured, mind; there is a working kitchen garden that is tended to daily, the fruits of which are used on the menu from dawn ‘til dusk in dishes, teas and cocktails. The heady herbal aromas of the garden even lend a hand in the treatment huts, helping guests to unwind and find their inner zen.
Sipping on Blanc de Blancs at Jenkyn Place
Being invited to a private tasting of Jenkyn Place’s first ever Blanc de Blancs in their beautiful Hampshire estate, standing next to the very vines upon which the ‘blancs’ were grown… it’s a yes from me. Even when dark clouds started to roll in and the heavens threatened to open, there was nothing that could dampen the enthusiam for the occasion – which is English winemaking in a nutshell, as it goes. By midday, there were blue skies, sunshine, Scotch eggs and puppies bounding around the garden – and a vertical tasting of Jenkyn Place Brut Cuvée from 2006 to 2014. It couldn’t have been more perfect (including the Scotch eggs, which still had soft, orange yolks).