English Wine Week in Devon - Sat 26th May to Sunday 3rd June ...

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English Wine Week in Devon - Sat 26th May to Sunday 3rd June 2007

From: Mark
Category: News & Events
Date: 13/04/2007
Time: 06:53:34

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English Wine - A Blagger's Guide:

The UK has 350 Vineyards covering an area greater than 500 football pitches.
It produces nearly 2 million bottles of wine a year.
Over 35 different grape varieties are grown (see recommendations below) to make white, red and sparkling wines. Most of them are dry in style.
In Devon and Cornwall there are over 22 vineyards producing over 40 different wines.
Recommended grape varieties to look out for in your wine:
White: Bacchus, Huxelbrebe, Kerner, Madeleine Angevine, Reichensteiner, Rivaner, Schönburger and Seyval Blanc Red: Dornfelder and Rondo Other classic varieties grown include Riesling, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier (the last trio often used in sparkling but sometimes found in normal wines). You might even find Cabernet Sauvignon or Shiraz lurking in some experimental vineyard somewhere!

Why buy English Wine? In the current 'climate of change' we should be looking to reduce our food miles and not buy wines that have travelled 8,000 miles. We now have world-class wines on our doorstep and we would be supporting local businesses. There has been a lot of talk about global warming and this maybe in part why large French wine businesses have been buying tracts of land in the South of England. Are they waiting for the day - sometime soon - the rest of the world wakes up to the potential of English Wine?

But it’s so expensive. Isn't it? English wine, by comparison to cheap imported plonk, can be seen as expensive. But don't treat it as cheap plonk but top quality wine. Wine production in this country is more expensive because we have high land prices, high labour costs, unsupportive tax regime and it is down to simple economies of scale: the French wine industry is 4000 times bigger. So the more English wine you buy the more competitive our producers can be.

So, is it a cause to celebrate? Pop a few corks? Sure is. Now it is even easier - English Wine Week is the main event of the year to celebrate drinking English wine and runs from Sat 26th May to Sunday 3rd June and there are hundreds of events, tastings, food-and-wine matching, special offers, vineyard trails and winery tours. In Devon and Cornwall - boasting a clutch of the best wine producers in the UK - there are dozens of events celebrating English Wine Week. Come and visit a vineyard, taste the wine and learn how it is grown and made...first hand.

Go visit: www.englishwineweek.co.uk for more information.