Marvellous Mark Cavendish

Cavendish took another stage yesterday - hurrah! I'm low on English wines, but had one bottle of red that I'd picked up at the vineyard gate on my travels around the country. It was from a winery I'd been to before and I'd enjoyed good wine.

We cracked it open, we poured, we prepared it toast 'Cannonball Cavendish'. An odour filled our noses. It was odd. It was unpleasant. It wasn't cardboard, it wasn't barnyard. It was identified by the wine-curious teens as hot dog. Not the roadside snack but an actual dog that was hot. Not just any dog. It smelled like Patsy the Jack Russell after she'd been running around on a hot day.

I tried a taste. I've never eaten dog, so I can't tell you how it compared, but it tasted nast. Some fruit was there but so was a barrel-load of acid and a little creosote. I'll keep the producer quiet to protect their blushes. You'll have to settle for the photo of Cavendish winning a stage of the tour of Britain again. I'm not bored of it yet!

Toasting with Ridgeview Merret Grosvenor 2004

Hurrah for Mark Cavendish who sprinted across the line to take the longest stage in the Tour de France today. A bit harsh on the breakaway who he sprinted past, but hurrah none the less.

Time for an English (yes I know he's Manx but you try growing grapes there) sparkling wine. A Ridgeview Merret Grosvenor 2004 which I bought last year when I drove through the Sussex countryside and saw a 'vineyard' sign. They gave me a few glasses of wine and let me wander around the vines taking nerdy photos.

It's a very good wine with a smooth mousse and distinct yeastiness which it's a cliche to call brioche. There's citrus too, but more grapefruit than lemon. It's one of England's more widely available sparklers as Waitrose do stock it when they can. The quality is unfortunately reflected in the price, expect to pay about ��22, more than your average grande marque Champagne in a supermarket, but it's worth a try to dismiss any thoughts about English wines being inferior.

Oh, and it's an excuse to post the picture I took of Cavendish winning a Tour of Britain stage again.

Tickled Pink By Wimbledon

Wimbledon is upon us. A chance to eat strawberries and cream whilst sitting in the rain listening to Cliff Richard, should you require one.

What better way to kick off the week than with an English wine. Welland Valley Wines produce the delightfully named 'Tickled Pink', a sparkling pink wine. It's a delicate rose pink, with a fine, enthusiastic mousse. It smells of strawberries and lemons. It tastes of strawberries too along with zippy redcurrants.

England's sparkling wines are proving to be a real success, and this is a good example. Unfortunately Welland Valley produces all of its wines on two acres of Leicestershire countryside. That's just a big back yard or outsized allotment. If you want some Tickled Pink - tough luck - it's sold out. Put an order in now for the next release, expect to pay around ��20.

Biddenden Gribble Bridge Ortega Dry 2007

This weekend we headed out for a picnic in the grounds of a minor stately home, whilst listening to an entertaining and talented steel drum band followed by a fabulous Salvation Army band who put on a 'Last Night Of The Proms' selection followed bythe 1812 Overture with a mesmerising fireworks display. The whole event had been arranged by the Wigston Lions to raise funds for the local air ambulance.

We'd taken a picnic and wine to share sitting on plastic backed blankets and picnic chairs. Some people had dressed for dinner and had dining tables and chairs, complete with candelabras. We may have been underdressed and may have failed to bring flags to wave, but we had English wine, a Biddenden Gribble Bridge Ortega Dry 2007.

I've been to Biddenden in Kent, and went last summer so saw these grapes as mere buds. It was nice that I got to see them all grown up. A picnic may not have been the perfect outing, this is a wine best served quite chilled. It's light and fruity with a touch of sweetness, much more German than French in character. At ��7-8 a bottle it's over-priced based on purely objective grounds of quality, but worth the extra to try English wine on a lovely English summer evening.

Three Choirs May Hill 2006

Last week was English Wine Week, and we celebrated with a trip to Duncan Marray Wines in Market Harborough. They had an English wine tasting, including a visit from the wine maker at Welland Valley Wines.

We tried his Phoenix which was a little like green strawberries and almond biscuits, then a Bacchus which was better, rather more fruity with a little sweetness and greater body. The Naseby Battlefield red smelled like blackberry picking in the rain, with an earthy fruitiness, but it wasn't a favourite. The 'Tickled Pink' sparkling rose was, it had a strawberry redcurrant sweetness with a smooth annd persistent mousse. We picked one up but they sold out whilst we were in the shop.

We got home and tried a Three Choirs May Hill 2006, an English wine from a bigger more established producer. We drank it while filling in our Euro 2008 prediction forms. A weird task as their are no British teams involved at all. It was good. Ordinarily I wouldn't choose a medium sweet wine, but this had plenty of tropical fruit and enough acid to balance it out. I'm growing fond of Madeleine Angevine since trying some at Wissett Wines. Expect to pay ��6-��7.

Noah's Flood and cycling through it

Last week it seemed like a great idea to plan in a spot of seaside cycling for the upcoming Bank Holiday weekend. Unfortunately this weekend was wet, windy and cold. Did it deter me? Well yes, a little bit, but on Monday I headed out with two much fitter cyclists to act as windbreaks. We set out in a strong head wind and made our way to a lovely little parish church with a doom painting and to Blythburgh where there are angels in the roof of the church and a cheery chap called 'Jack O'The Clock' who rings the bell.

Soon after that the rain started, and then it got worse, and worse, the wind changed direction magically to be in my face at every moment. The rain had flooded the roads in places and as well as cycling through mini fords I got splashed by cars.

This is the kind of weather that Wissett Wines has to deal with. 2005 was not a dry and sunny summer, and it shows in Noah's Flood Pinot Gris 2005. It's a bright and clear wine with a light aroma and body, which doeasn't really match its 13.5% alcohol. It's dry with a mineral acidity and some fruit that's almost tropical mixed with citrus. It's not a run of the mill Pinot Grigio, bt it's not outstanding, look out for warmer, drier summers from Wissett.

Wissett Pink - Perfect For The Giro

Mark Cavendish isn't quite English, he rides for the Isle of Man, but he is British so he gets a big hurrah for winning a stage of the Giro. I don't know of any vineyards in the Isle of Man so we settled for an English wine in Giro pink.

Wissett Pink 2006 is from Suffolk, but it tastes decidedly French. It's off dry with a high acidity. There's some strawberry, in a kind of Opal Fruits sort of way, and there's more red fruit in a shop-bought summer pudding style.

It's best served very cold on a warm evening with good company and easy conversation. It's also the best still English rose I've tried as it does it's job of being refeshing but not insipid, satifying but not cloying.

Noah's First Pinot Gris 2006

Last weekend was the East Midlands International Cicle Classic, a truly bonkers cycle race looping around roads and farm tracks in Rutland, Oakham and Melton Mowbray, best known for pork pies and Stilton cheese. I prepared myself for my role as marshals' assitant by having an English wine with tea on Saturday.

We'd picked up a bottle of Noah's First 2006 from Wissett Wines in Suffolk. The winery is fairly Noah heavy, with their logo based on roof bosses at Norwich Cathedral and their story based on Noah's penchant for the odd cup of wine. We met the winemaker who told us the rather sweet story of his first grandson being born on the first day of harvest of the grapes for this wine, and him being called Noah. I'm a sucker for romantic wine related stories.

The wine is late harvested pinot gris, with Wissett explaining that the local climate is very like that of Alsace. It's just off dry with a fruity, floral nose. There's sweet honied fruit salad, with nothing in particular standing out, with just a smidge of cinnamon like spice and some citrus to keep it fresh. At 11% alcohol it's light, but quite more-ish. It would be perfect for a summer picnic.

Wissett Wines

This weekend we took a trip to East Anglia. After a stroll down the pier at Southwold and a visit to the delightfully bizarre Under The Pier Show we pootled back to Wissett Wines. It was strange to find a vineyard on the Norfolk-Suffolk border, but on a sunny day at was a perfect stop off.

The winery offers a self-guided tour of the vineyards with a Walkman commentary. It sends you walking through fields of Pinot Gris, Madeleine Angevine, Auxerrois, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, as well as past a field of alpacas and through a rose garden.

The commentary is cheerfully eccentric with just the right amount of nerdy detail about Scott-Henry vs Geneva Double Curtain training systems to keep me amused balanced with more sales friendly descriptions of strawberry and cream flavoured bubbly and Noah's own vineyards.

We stopped inside for a tasting, four wines of good quality from the kind of light and fruity styles you'd expect to drink in Rome to a fuller, fruitier white and an enjoyable dry rose. We picked up bottles of the three we really liked, I'll write them up as I taste them away from the sunny day vineyard tasting effect.

Paul Cope not only cycled to Southwold and back to the vineyard, he took the photos too. He describes them as 'pictures of wire'. I admit that some of the interest in identifying vines is lost when there's not leaves, buds or fruit, but here they are. Bonus points if you correctly identify the varietal and/or training system!

English Wine Week

English Wine week kicks off this weekend, with English vineyards offering tours and tastings across the country. There's activities and events as far north as Yorkshire so raise a glass to global warming and go along to one of these events.

For England and St George

Happy St George’s day everyone. Time to celebrate with a glass of Nyetimber, England’s finest wine.

Nyetimber comes from a vineyard in West Sussex. It was planted with Champagne varieties and obsessively cared for, and has gone from strength to strength.

So what’s it like. I had a Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2000, a classic Champagne blend. It’s a rich lemon-gold colour, with a beautiful mousse. It smells of brioche, with lemon curd on toast.

It’s off dry, with a medium acidity and alcohol. It tastes heavenly. Each mouthful releases angels to dance on your tongue. OK, that might be a little florid, but the mousse is smooth and satisfying, the brioche and lemons carry through with a yeasty length. It’s worryingly more-ish.

Nyetimber isn’t cheap, at about £25, but it compares well with an NV Grande Marque Champagne, when you can get hold of it. BBR carry it, as do Waitrose.

The vineyard was recently bought by a Dutch investor, who liked the wine so much he bought the company. With UK temperatures rising by around 3 degrees Celsius each decade, and increasingly drier summers, wine production in England looks set to have a sunny future.

Teenage Kicks

Another trip to Kent, another bottle of English wine to try. This time a Biddenden 2004 Ortega. I���ve strolled around the vineyards at Biddenden, they���re really quite sweet compared to the huge operations elsewhere in Europe. The family outfit pays the rent with Cider, apple juice and a coffee shop selling lots of local jams and cakes, as well as the vineyard.

It���s a pale lemon colour with reasonable legs. It smells floral, of elderflower blossoms and honeysuckle. It���s medium in sweetness with a medium acidity and medium body. With 12% alcohol it���s pretty medium really. It tastes like blossoms and grapes. Wine doesn���t often taste like grapes and it���s a refreshing surprise. The floral, grapey taste lasts well.

Biddenden Ortega reminded me of the German wines we drank at college, but it has more character. It���s easy to drink, refreshing and isn���t too strong. It���s perfect chilled for a summer picnic or with a pasta salad.

The current vintage is around ��7 a bottle, which is good value for an English wine.

Hurrah for Vicky Pendleton

It���s been a very good day for British cycling. At this year���s World Track Championships the GB team has picked up 11 medals, seven of them are gold and three of those belong to Victoria Pendleton ��� go Vicky!

Time to crack open some sparkles. I was down in Somerset a few weeks ago, and stopped by a farm shop where I found some Exmoor Brut, a sparkling wine from the County. I���d never heard of Dunkery Vineyards, and the farm shop assistant was quite insistent that I double check the price as it was ��13, not ��3. It seemed reasonable to me, it���s not easy growing Pinot Noir in England, though it seems to be getting easier as the world warms up.

It was a pale lemon gold with plenty of persistent bubbles. It smelled yeasty, very yeasty, marmite and feet with some lemony citrus. The bubbles feel smooth in the mouth, and it���s just off dry with perhaps a little too much acidity but not an offensive amount. Medium bodied with more yeasty bread and zippy lemons, there was a hint of softer summer fruits.

Exmoor Brut is a good wine, and it would hold its own against cheap Champagne and Cava. If it���s anything like other English sparkling wines it���ll get better quickly.

If Pendleton, Hoy, Wiggins and the squad were choosing a wine to celebrate tonight, I���d be happy to give them this, though I feel they deserve Nyetimber, it���s worth seeking out.

England in the pink

England take on Portugal tomorrow and I’m keeping up my patriotic duty with another English wine. This time it’s Biddenden’s Gribble Bridge Rose 2004. It’s made in a tiny town in Kent in what is claimed to be England’s oldest privately owned commercial vineyard. That’s about a great a claim as being England’s oldest un-injured striker, but it works for them.

Of their 22 acres only one row of vines is Pinot Noir, so I was quite surprised that they had a Rose, but this is a blend of Ortega and Pinot Noir.

The wine is a bright, clear and positively exhuberant pink. It’s really visually attractive. It smells clean and fresh with lemon and the tiniest drop of strawberry, although the colour amplifies it.

It’s dry with a refreshingly crisp acidity. The wine feels light and fresh and benefits from being served cool, but not ice cold. It’s lemony and the strawberry doesn’t carry through.

Gribble Bridge Rose is fresh and refreshing, and a good example of Kentish wine. It is over priced at around £6.50 a bottle, you can certainly get better Rose’s from the New World for a fiver, but if you want to try an English wine, this is a good one to try. If you find yourself in the neighbourhood stop in for a bottle, or try Budgens who distribute on a limited basis.

Low expectations

England take on Ecuador today and the English newspapers will no doubt be disappointed in their performance no matter what they do.

If you want to experience disappointment try Biddenden's ' Gribble Bridge' Schonberger 2004. It's made in Kent so it's English regional wine. I tried it ahead of today's game. It's pale to the point of transparency, with vague grape aromas. It's dry and overly acidic. As for taste, I really struggled to identify anything at all. I left it for a while hoping oxygen may help. It did a little, with some green apple and a little lemon coming through. It's worth serving it at cellar temperature rather than chilled to get some flavour. My drinking companion described it as being "a bit like a cheap own brand version of Ame".

It's 11% alcohol, so quite light, but not easy drinking as that's all you can taste.

I hope England's football performance is better. I'll be drinking wine from elsewhere in Europe.

A Qualified Success

Hurrah, England have qualified for the knock out stages, so I will celebrate with a glass of English Wine, against my better judgement. The Three Choirs Vineyard is in Gloucestershire, rather far north for a vineyard, but it’s certainly a commercial operation rather than a hobby. They’ve been making wine in their 75 acres for thirty years. If global warming is a reality and rainfall in England really is falling (er, reducing), then it could be an estate to watch for the future.

Parsons Leap is a reasonably priced wine at around £5-6, and available in supermarkets. It boasts hand picked grapes, although isn’t specific on the label about which ones. A little digging reveals Madeleine Angevine Phoenix, Reichenstiener and Seyval Blanc, so I can see why they didn’t bother.

It’s a very pale yellow green, with little viscosity. The nose is gentle, with hints of blossom, some citrus fruit, and just a hint of nettles. The 2004 smells young and fresh.

It’s dry and crisply acidic, although not unpleasantly so, keeping it light. There’s grapefruit and lime on the palate which takes over a little from the blossom. At 11% it’s reasonably low in alcohol. There’s not enough fruit really to keep this wine going so drink over the next six months.

Parson’s Leap is light and fresh, perhaps best served chilled in the garden on a Sunday afternoon, it could accompany fairly plain poached fish or chicken, but would perhaps get a bit lost against even quite light sauces.

I’ll buy another bottle in 5 years to see whether climate change is making a difference, but for now there’s plenty to choose from in this price bracket and Parson’s Leap isn’t jumping above the rest.

Drinking for England

England start their World Cup campaign today, but I won't be celebrating with a bottle of English wine. Why not? Well:

a) Most of it isn't very good
b) The good stuff is overpriced

A lot of English Regional wine is just poor quality. It's made by people who think it's a wheeze to plant a vineyard, but who haven't really thought through the work required. However, that is changing. There are now some really good English wines available, heading away from Muller-Thurgau and into Pinot Noir, for both reds and sparking wines.

It looks like sparking could be the route forward for English wine. As the climate heats up a degree or two the south of England will have summer temperatures not unlike Champagne, although still dealing with maritime rainfalls, with the chalk ground to make similar style wines.

Unfortunately most of the good stuff is snapped up by the Queen (OK, not only the Queen) and other folk who want to serve English wine to go with British cuisine.

So when England take on Paraguay, I'll make do with elderflower cordial and a few strawberries with black pepper.