English wine: Backing the home team

English wine might sound like a contradiction in terms but it's gaining popularity and offers licensees a good selling point, explains Adam Withrington.

The English. Drinkers of tea, inventors of football and the electric light. And, of course, masterful brewers of beer. But makers of wine? Surely not? The words English and wine have long formed part of many a joke.

Last year, while hosting the European Union Summit, Prime Minister Tony Blair served Welsh white wines and English red wines at a dinner for his fellow European leaders. Legend has it Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi later sent his Swedish counterpart, Goran Persson, 24 bottles of Italian wine, saying they would help him recover from the experience.

Well 'twas ever so for English wine. We can brew beer, but make wine? Let's leave that to the experts, as the saying goes.

However, while Mr Berlusconi might have enjoyed his little joke, the fact is that over the last two to three years an increasingly positive buzz has been emanating from the English wine industry. It may only be small but what it is starting to produce is really beginning to hit the mark.

According to a "conservative" estimate put together by the English Wines Producers, sales of English wine have grown 20 per cent year-on-year over the last two to three years.

"There have been a series of relatively warm summers in England and the quality of wine making has really improved. English wine is no longer an embarrassment," argues Pierpaolo Petrassi, Master of Wine and senior wine buyer at Waverley TBS.

Location​

There is no doubt that producing great wine has always been a struggle for the English.

The general rule of thumb is that to produce great wines you have to grow it in regions situated between 30 degrees and 50 degrees latitude. Britain sits on the very margins of that, with southern England at roughly 51 degrees to 52 degrees.

As Pierpaolo puts it, start trying to make wine in any more unsuitable conditions and "you start working against nature". So in many cases English producers have created hybrid grapes that will stand up to harsh growing conditions.

Sparkling success​

Despite this, the quality of what is being produced has improved markedly in recent years and the real area of excellence in this English Wine renaissance is in sparkling wines. There have been numerous reports in the national press of English sparklers beating their Aussie and French counterparts in blind taste tests.

However, a real sign of this quality is that at least one champagne house has hopped over the Channel and invested in an English wine producer and is currently looking to buy up land in the south of England for its own use.

One reason for this success is down to the similarity in growing conditions between the Champagne region and certain vineyards in the south of England. Both have thin layers of top soil with chalk lying underneath. The weather is also a pretty close fit too.

"The base liquid produced in Champagne is not very nice at all. The actual method of making into champagne from the base liquid is where the magic lies. And the same can apply to many English sparkling wine producers," says Pierpaolo. "And English sparkling wine stands up to champagne and the best sparkling wines from across the world."

Pub opportunities​

With this in mind there is now a real opportunity for English wines in pubs. In the short-term as St George's Day and even the World Cup approaches while stocking a good selection of English beers will no doubt be on your mind, extending that offer to English wine makes good sense.

But there is a much bigger story going on, something that English wine is looking to tap into, and that is local sourcing.

More and more pubs are stocking locally sourced meat, vegetables, bread and beer. Wine easily fits into this equation.

"England is relevant 365 days of the year; there are 365 reasons why English wines are relevant to pubs," believes Frazer Thompson, managing director of the English Wines Group.

Pierpaolo argues that championing local produce is becoming more important wherever you look.

"Alitalia, the national airline of Italy, always used to serve champagne on its flights then it realised that people would be much more receptive to having Italian wines on board," he points out. "And the same attitude should exist everywhere with wine. The House of Commons has now just started favouring good quality English wines and fizz."

But Frazer sees the argument for stocking English wines as even more simple than that.

"There is a huge homogenisation going on at the moment," he says. "Brands are getting bigger as are wholesalers, and therefore people are getting a very similar experience in every pub and bar they go into. So licensees needs to differentiate their experience. The only way you can get this across to consumers is to make it relevant to them."

Highlighting their efforts​

To help push English wines into the public consciousness a major group of English wine producers, collectively and imaginatively known as The English Wine Producers (EWP), is running English Wines Week between May 27 and June 4 (see below). It will run a series of events as well as distributing promotional material to a variety of outlets, including pubs.

Julia Trustram Eve, marketing manager at EWP, says the event is more than just flag-waving photo call for English wines. "It's an opportunity to develop the relationship between vineyards and outside outlets like pubs," she explains.

"English wines come in superbly well with local sourcing of food and because most are whites and sparkling whites they lend themselves tremendously well to drinking in the summer. So it's a great time for us to launch this campaign," she says.

Frazer also sees a rosy future for English wines. "There has been a huge increase in plantings in the last few years - we will have doubled the wine-producing region in the next three years in the South East of England," he says. "Think of it this way - New Zealand didn't have a wine industry to speak of 30 years ago. Now look at it."

He stops short of saying the English market would hit the same heights - but maybe he doesn't want to jinx it. One thing is for sure - English wine is on the up and should be taken very seriously by pubs looking to improve their drinks offer.

Make it work for you​

• English Wine Week runs from May 27 and June 4, 2006
• Point-of-sale material will be sent out to pubs and bars that wish to participate
• You can meet wine producers and tour their vineyards
• You can obtain further details on www.englishwineproducers.com​
• If you wish to speak to anyone about the event call Julia Trustram Eve on 01536 772264.