This week it’s been English Wine Week, as you might imagine an event set up to encourage greater recognition (and consumption) of the wines produced in old Blighty. Its fair to say that even five years ago most people would have choked on their glass of Sauvignon at the prospect of a wide range of drinkable English wines being available, but even though many still might, they should perhaps think again. There are good English wines on offer in most of the major supermarkets and most self respecting farm shops also carry a few. Vineyard gate sales are also up.
Many of the well-known wines come from Kent (e.g. Chapel Down – who do a rather delightful wine called Bacchus that’s a good contender for swapping with Sauvignon) and Sussex where one of HM The Queen favourites fizzes comes from (Nyetimber, they do lovely stuff) but there’s plenty of options from other counties too. With my #livelocal challenge and the delightful sunny weather in mind I decided to sample something from Essex and happened upon a rosé made from Pinot Noir.
Here its is, its from New Hall vineyard, which is out towards the coast from Chelmsford. To pair with it we decided on a classic choice of lamb cutlets (local of course), simply grilling these and serving with new potatoes and wilted mixed greens. The match worked well and the rosé also stood up to being sipped on its own as an aperitif, its nice and fruity but sufficiently dry to be refreshing without too much acidity. It’s a nice mid but bright rosé colour. I thought it was a great all round wine both good on its own and with the lamb, much better than many rosés which can either be too sweet or too acidic. It’s pretty sensibly priced at about £6.00 a bottle (direct from the vineyard) and, I think, would rank well against a slightly pricier rosé.
If the weather holds like this I’d recommend you get your hands on a case, as I will be, to sip throughout the summer, with or without lamb. Go on discover some English wine for a refreshing change 
Love today’s livelocal lamb chops and it was a great idea to pair it with an English wine.
At one time we had three commercial vineyards in spitting distance of here. http://www.shawsgate.co.uk/ remains and there are probably another dozen scattered around the county. One of the things they do at Shawsgate is to allow you to lease a row of vines and then when ‘your’ wine is ready it arrives all bottled up.
I am always willing to try a new wine, although I am probably one of the people that would stay clear of a British wine. Perhaps it is about time I tried some!
Thanks for the comments. It was fun to try a new wine and I'll definitely be testing out more English ones.
Grethic: Thanks for reminding me of Shawsgate – I went there a few years back and it had completely slipped my mind since – this weekend I found some of their Neptune which was lovely and fresh so i'll be trying that again.
Jacqueline: go on give a bottle a go – there really is some good stuff out there now