There’s something wonderfully exciting about the English Wine Producers Press and Trade Tasting Event. Could it be the chance to sample well over 100 of England’s finest and newest wines? Or is it the opportunity to talk to the winemakers and owners of so many of the top producers? Or is it just that awesome feeling of goodwill, respect and community that seems to build stronger and stronger each year in the English Wine industry? It was this same event last year that inspired me to start the Great British Wine project, and with all the contacts we’ve made in the last year in the industry our first point of call was to catch up with some familiar faces.
This year I was joined by Andrij Jurkiw, fellow English Wine ambassador and now regular contributor to Great British Wine. We set a mission to try each and every wine on the centre tasting table (115 wines to be exact - more on this later). But before we embarked on that mammoth challenge, we had the pleasure of attending a Sommelier Wine Awards masterclass tasting session hosted by sommelier and wine list consultant Jade Koch. Seven gold medal wines were included in this prolific tasting, including a recent favourite of mine: the Harrow & Hope Brut Rosé 2013 – we have an article on them coming next week!
After the excellent masterclass, we did a spot of networking with the contacts we have established over the last year. It was a great opportunity to hear the latest from Brad Greatrix of Nyetimber, Josh Donaghay-Spire of Chapel Down and Dermot Sugrue of Wiston Estate, amongst many others. I was personally very pleased to see the Mike and Hillary Wagstaff of Greyfriars Vineyard in Surrey at the event, as well as new EWP members Sixteen Ridges Vineyard, who have arrived in style with some lovely still and sparkling wines. Many other familiar faces from Hush Heath, Exton Park, Ridgeview, Bluebell Vineyard, Gusbourne and Biddenden – the list goes on, there are simply too many great producers to mention!
There was also the live presentation of Gold Medal awards to the winners from both Sommelier Wine Awards and the International Wine Challenge – the latter of which was hosted by the brilliant and rather animated Oz Clarke. It was great to see Oz’s clear passion as he passed on some expert advice to winners and the industry as a whole. Like Andrij and myself, Mr Clarke could be seen carefully analysing and dissecting the huge array of wines on the centre table for most of the remainder of the day.
Which brings us onto the wines themselves. From traditional sparkling blends to Blanc de Blancs and Blanc de Noirs, and from fresh fragrant Bacchus to complex white blends and surprisingly involving reds. There was truly something there for everyone, and an overwhelming delivery of excellence in winemaking. With trying so many wines in a few short hours, how could we possibly summarise our tasting notes and recommendations in a single article? The answer was simple, our own 'Great British Wine Awards' allowing us to pick our top wines from all tried on the day, and revisiting many of our favourites from over the last year.
We’ve broken the wines down into 9 categories covering both still and sparkling formats. We both rated all of the wines individually and then narrowed down our top three wines for each category. In some areas there were clear winners. In others, such as the Blanc de Blancs category, there were so many excellent wines that picking three favourites was quite an agonising task. Needless to say, we also have also Commended some of the wines that didn’t quite make it into the top three.
Before we get onto the wines, I just wanted to say a big thanks to Julia Trustram Eve and all of the EWP team for putting on such a fantastic event.
