English Wine Festival 2005

Relax. It's the English Wine Festival.

September 2005 and the festival was back at its spiritual home - the English Wine Centre near Alfriston, its country setting and old oak barn lending a village fete feel to the proceedings.

Around twenty vineyards had stalls - and wines from several others were also there to be tried - so it can take the best part of a day to taste all the wines. I lost count when I got past a hundred. Local food producers also exhibit their wares: you can sample everything from Swedish meatballs to fresh chillies.

Do you have to know anything about wine to come along to the English Wine Festival? No. When you arrive you're given a glass and can wander round to your heart's content and as long as you can say: "can I try that one please?" you'll feel very much at home.

English Wine Festival - a Bargain

The smaller site this year meant no tutored tastings, no opportunity to listen to experts' opinions on the wines. Nevertheless the day zoomed by: we arrived at 10.30am and left at 4.30pm, a most enjoyable day for the £10 entrance fee.

The English Wine Centre is near Drusilla's Zoo. There's plenty of free parking if you're coming by car and a shuttle bus from nearby Berwick station for those who don't have the luxury of a tee-total chauffeur.

Though coming by car has one distinct advantage. One of the great pleasures of the English Wine Festival is being able to buy wines that you know you'll like - you've tried them. While most visitors may buy a bottle or two to take home with them some buy a case or two or three - tricky to lug home on the train.

You could perhaps then invite your friends to try one of the "Champagnes" or reds, challenge them to guess its country of origin and take great delight in their surprise when told such an excellent wine comes from England.

English Wine Festival - Red Wine

There are over 400 vineyards in England and Wales, most in southern England but there's even a commercial vineyard near Leeds and with a bit more global warming who knows how long it will be before Scotland joins the fold?

Judging by the wines at the English Wine Festival this year, "traditional" English wines - sometimes rather bland medium dry whites - are giving way to a veritable cornucopia of vinous delights. Rich white fum�s, refreshing rosés, Champagne-rivalling sparklers, well-rounded and even spicy reds. The range and quality of English wines really will come as quite a surprise to the uninitiated.

An interesting tip for publicans who want to introduce their clients to English Wines: on St George's Day do an English Wine special, get the punters to try it and they'll come back for more. And the chances are there'll be a vineyard not far from you (unless you live in the frozen tundras north of York) so you may also be able to exploit the fashion for local produce.

English Wine Festival - Grapes

Almost all of the wine on offer at the English Wine Festival is made from grapes, grown and vinified in England. Not all though. As well as producing "proper" wine, Kemp's produce wines from fruits such as blackberries, strawberries and sloes. And I bet you've never had "Champagne" made from raspberries? It has a very distinctive taste of, er, raspberries and would probably go very well with a creamy syllabub.

Martyn Doubleday, Sky Wine Correspondent, chaired the judges this year. Competition was strong, with good showings of rosés and reds. The experts plumped for, amongst others, Sandhurst's rich Pinot Noir Red, a sparkler from Biddenden and Carr Taylor's rosé. My favourite was Carter's King Coel red (which wasn't entered into the competition and which had sold out before I could buy some - ah well, there's always next year.)

This year visitors were invited to vote for their favourite: RidgeView's Belgravia "Champagne" was the public's choice.

English Wine Festival - Food

If you fancied something tasty there was lots to choose from. The Swedish meatballs were delicious and, despite the name, made from local produce. Blue cheese, chillies, olives, yummy biscuits - all sorts of food producers were only too happy to let you sample their wares.

We were delighted to see the return of the hog roast this year. Definitely not for vegetarians, but the carnivores at the festival had made short work of the hog by the middle of the afternoon.

And if all the drinking and eating made you in need of a rest there were plenty of tables and chairs on the lawn where you could sit and chill out and listen to Something Cool whose soothing swing/jazz would have been equally at home in a Manhattan bar as it was in rural Sussex.

English Wine Festival - Vines

Why not grow your own wine? All you need is a few vines in the garden. If your average French peasant can do it why not you?

The Vine House import top quality grafted vines (click on the picture for their website). Whether you want one or two, or a hundred or several thousand, The Vine House can supply.

English winemakers are an innovative lot - always looking for something new to try. If you've never heard of a grape variety called Solaris you probably will soon. It's a new hybrid that yields a rich, flavoursome white wine with hints of muscat and honey.

For the amateur, choosing the variety to plant can be tricky but going for vines that need little or no spraying against mildew can save a lot of work. So for white wine perhaps go for Phoenix and for red wine Regent should do well. One chap, originally from Turkey (pictured below) has recently planted a hundred or so vines on his allotment and has gone for 3 reds: Rondo, Pinot Noir and Regent. Should make a nice blend.

There's something about the oh-so-English setting of the English Wine Festival that gladdens the heart and soothes away the stress. Add that to the valium of the slow jazz and the soporific effect of the wine and an afternoon bathed in comforting endorphins is assured.