What I drank last night

There's a few of my favourite English sparklings reviewed here:
http://www.winefromatumbler.com/search/english

Also, check out the Wine Pantry store if you're in London: they sell only English wine and allow you to taste a selection in-store.

I think the time for English wine is coming soon....very exciting developments happening all over the place with new vineyards and producers. Loved the Tesco Finest one from Denbies.

Had a bottle of Chapel Down 'Bacchus' a little while back, enjoyed it, Bright, fruity and floral.

There are some very decent English wines - my favourite is from a local vineyard - Wickham vineyard in Hampshire - the reds and whites are good and they supply some to MPs at the Houses of Parliament.

My personal favorite is their Fume Blanc - usually released in late November/early December - looks plain almost like water - but is very fruity smooth andlong - heaven - a bargain at £8 or £9 a bottle.

Sadly 2012 I fear won't be a good vintage - been raining here for 10 hrs and still going. :-(

I agree I would like to try more English Wines, sorry not the weak cheap stuff that Tesco stock. Come on Tesco support England even if only as a trial, surely it's worth a go

I agree with Spikedc about that Chapel Hill Bacchus - lovely stuff.

My local vineyard is Brightwell in Wallinford. Waitrose stocks this as well as the Chapel Hill.

The Brightwell wine I tried was called Oxford Flint - bone dry and really nice.

http://brightwellvineyard.co.uk/wines.html#flint

I got it during one of these buy six get 25% off deals.

Tesco are amazingly lacking in having anything 'English'. I checked online and they do have five British wines available - if you count ginger beer and cream sherry as being wine!

But seriously I think its all to do with price and the volumes of wine that English producers make - relatively high prices/limited production volumes. Also if the Tesco technocrats fed English wine into their store affluence demographics machine, I think the Tesco computer will have said 'no' to English wine, as is the current situation.

But not even a few bottles online? Shame on them!

Regards

Ian

Hello Pumps, we do have some English wines available at the moment :-

http://www.tesco.com/wine/product/browse/default.aspx?N=8129+4294965962

It is important for us to support this industry where we can and you make some very good points. Interestingly enough the team were at an English vineyard only last week.

The flipside of all of this is that the British public have a wonderfully diverse and competitive range of wines available to them. I know I’ve missed it when I’ve been abroad in some countries where local wines and varieties rule the roost.

Hi Nick,

I stand corrected - I missed 'United Kingdom' and looked at 'British' wine.

Here's an idea - why don't you delete either the UK or British category and have one category e.g. 'United Kingdom'. This way you will have increased your English (or UK) wines from two to seven (if you count the ginger beer and cream sherry).

Regards

Ian

Hello Ian,

That’s a very fair point, we’re getting that cleaned up now and it should be resolved later this afternoon.

Thank you,

Nick.

Hi Nick,

It's encouraging to see that Wine Community suggestions are actually considered and acted on, if appropriate - I see the Tesco Wine website has been amended to merge United Kingdom and Britain into one category.

Thanks

Ian

Nick,

Can you tell me what are Bay Point wines in the Tesco country category? UK?

The website has a lot of blanks as if Tesco are actually unsure where they are sourced and/or produced.

Regards

Ian

Hello Ian,

It’s a good question - where do you place a low alcohol wine, made in Britain from imported grape concentrate? At the moment they’re not listed under a country at all.

You can find these in the low ABV section:-

http://www.tesco.com/wine/product/browse/default.aspx?No=30&N=8129+8113

Or you can search on the name :-

http://www.tesco.com/wine/product/search/default.aspx?searchBox=silver%20bay

Sorry it’s a bit of a nebulous area, but hopefully customers wouldn’t use a country search when looking for these wines.

Thank you,

Nick.
edited by Liliane Osborne on 12/10/2012