Don’t let your Spanish neighbours tell you otherwise: English wines are great, at least according to the International Wine Challenge!
The Guardian reported a few days ago that English wines had secured the highest gold medal rate among participating wine producing countries, with experts, to quote the article, ”describing the improvement as remarkable”.
While England came ninth overall in the country rankings, it won more gold medals as a percentage of its entries than any other country.
In fact 16.48% of English wines entered achieved gold medals, followed by Australia (9.35%), Portugal (9.04%), Italy (6.74%), France (5.90%), Spain (5.50%) and New Zealand (5.50%). This was a huge statistical and political win, obviously achieved by submitting only the very very best of English wines – mainly driven by sparkling wine and chardonnay, and drawing particularly on wines from Kent, England’s best region for wine. But the judges said that this showed England’s “rise as a world-class wine producing country”.
Sam Caporn, a master of wine quoted in the Guardian, said: “I think there are a number of reasons why England did so well this year. One of them is that for many of the top producers, the vines are getting older which leads to greater quality. She also said that English wines are now being matured for longer: “There is also the possibility of increased bottle age – Wiston for example, won a trophy for their Cuvee 2009 Magnum and reserve wines are also taking on more complexity with every year that goes by.”
And clearly English wines are benefitting from the more sunny days and the warmer weather that climate change is bringing.
So, remember to buy wine when you are next visiting England, and bring it round to show your Spanish neighbours. It’s likely to be a while yet before they can get it in Mercadona!
Read the full story in the Guardian here. See the International Wine Challenge scores here.
Picture above: Chapel Down Flint Dry wine from Kent. Picture taken by Tomas er. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.