I was in England earlier this year and managed to pay my first visit to a local vineyard. Chapel Down in Tenterden, Kent is our largest producer at around 1 million bottles of wine, roughly a sixth of the country’s total produce. It was a cloudy and bitterly cold March morning for the very informative guided tour of both vineyard and winery. The vines were still dormant but it’s always interesting to get a feel for the terroir regardless of the season. It was the inspiration for this week’s advanced lesson – luckily a student had personally imported two of the other wines so we were really able to get a feel for this exciting period for English wine.
In the England’s Green and Pleasant Land session in April 2015, we tasted:
Elderflower Liquer (Elderflowers/Citric Acid/Lemongrass/Blackcurrant buds), Aroma Test in France for Marks and Spencer, MYR99
*Blanc de Blancs, (Chardonnay), English Quality Sparkling Wine, Chapel Down, Kent, England, 2009, GBP27
**English Quality Wine, (Bacchus), Chapel Down, Kent, England, 2013, GBP12
***Dark Harvest, (Dornfelder/Rondo), Bolney Estate, West Sussex, England, 2011, GBP11
White Port, (Rare White Blend), Jane Brook, Swan Valley, Western Australia, NV, AUD30
*hand picked in Kent, Sussex, Essex, 4 years on lees, personal import
**VF student import
***VF student import, 6 months in oak
****VF student import