English Wine Festival 2002
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English Wine Festival 2002 |
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The move to Bentley was a great success. Bentley house provided a stately backdrop to proceedings,
elegant accommodation for the tutored tastings and spacious lawns and gardens to explore.
The great thing about the English Wine Festival is that it is so relaxed and informal, you'll feel completely comfortable here even if you know absolutely nothing about wine - except perhaps how to raise a glass to your lips. The £10 entrance (£8 in advance) not only gets you a glass and unlimited tastings but also entrance to the Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum, a bonus if not everyone in your party has the stamina for all day tasting. |
"...My Way..." No, mercifully not karaoke. The venerable Charles Metcalfe MW, chair of judges, announcing the winners.
Charles doesn't like his wines over oaked: "oak should be for rounding off rough edges - not to make you feel you've been sucking a plank". And some ascerbic comments: "medium dry is a bit of a dustbin for the English wine industry - wines that didn't quite work blended and flogged off to an unsuspecting public." But very complimentary about the growing ranks of English sparklers: "some cracking wines." I certainly agreed about the fizz - some knock spots off lesser champagnes. The excellent, prize winning Ridgeview 1998 Cavendish is made from a classic blend of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, but some tasty competition was offered by 100% Seyval sparklers. And all made using the proper Champagne method. |
Wine tasting with Andy Sawyer and Laura Doubleday: father Martyn was
elsewhere on important business - getting a tan in Ibiza.
Cheese tastings were at 12 noon and 2pm and wine tastings at 1pm and 3pm. Trouble was, if you went to one of each you were bound to miss something - the official opening, lunch or the prize giving. Perhaps next year there could be a wine and a cheese running concurrently starting at 12.15 reprised at 2pm? Though personally I preferred last year's approach where wine and cheese were felicitously juxtaposed in combined tastings. |
The lady from Sandhurst Vineyard had a pair of prizewinners. The one shown is
for the Sandhurst Oak Aged Red 2000.
We all had our favourites. I liked the Epoch Reserve 1999, a red made from 100% Rondo - the up and coming grape of English red wine. The Denbies Chardonnay was a surprise: 100% Chardonnay and it tasted as one supposes Chardonnay should. Their Riesling was also very good if you like Riesling. Downs Edge Fume 1994, yes 1994, was super and would do credit to any dinner table. A couple of useful tips: do you know how to tell American oak from French oak? American oak tastes of vanilla whilst French gives the wine a toasty taste - thanks Mr Sawyer. And, "in the old days" they used to put a dead rat into wine to purify it. Laura didn't make it clear whether this ever used to happen in England - surely not. Congratulations to the band - smooth, soothing jazz. |
I wonder if eel be here next year? As well as the fresh fish stand, others variously
offered coffee, cake, quiche, chutney, chocolate and cheese. But nobody selling
what would have been a most useful accessory - a wine glass holder on a string.
Buying a nice bottle of something to have with lunch rewards a morning's hard work. And of course a few bottles to take home: something that took your fancy, maybe even a prizewinner. Lunch itself was a disappointment: I'd been looking forward to the succulent hog roast that had been such a success last year, but this year we had cold beef rolls - very good, but just not the same. Some lunched in the Bentley House tearoom which looked inviting. |
The redoubtable Christopher Ann who instigated the festival twenty seven years ago and
has organised it ever since, now hands over the reins to Jane Stevens who will no doubt
make a worthy successor.
All in all we had a splendid day - thank you, organisers - and now look forward to the 29th Festival. The 2003 English Wine and Regional Food Festival will be on 6 & 7 September 2003 at Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum, Halland near Lewes, East Sussex. If you like wine and will be in or around Sussex, give it a try. Tickets can be bought on arrival, or at a discount in advance from the Bentley Wildfowl & Motor Museum Tel 01825 840573. |
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| 2001 English Wine Festival | 2000 English Wine Festival | 1999 English Wine Festival |
Who am I? Just a visitor to the festival,
Mike at hraconsulting-ltd.co.uk (please replace "at" with "@")
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English Wine Festival. Festival of English Wine held in September. Sample English Wine.