English Wines Look to a Sparkling Future

English wine producers are looking forward to a sustained period of growth over the coming years as word spreads about the quality of the products.

Last week’s English Wine Producers Trade & Press Tasting was abuzz with optimistic assessments of the potential of English wines, not only in the UK but in Europe and other major wine markets.

Official wine production figures released last week by the Wine Standards Branch of the Food Standards Agency confirmed earlier predictions that 2009 production was over three million bottles. The hectare in production is showing a 20 percent increase on the previous year alone whilst there is a further 25 percent planted but still to come on stream. New plantings continue, with more anticipated this year.

Much of the recent plantings and a growing percentage of production are for sparkling wine. The lineup of wines in this year’s tasting was indicative of this growing trend, with 30 of the 69 wines on the EWP central tasting table line up being sparkling, and increasingly using the classic varieties.

This year tastes also introduced and some new names in English wine, alongside latest releases of firm favorites.

Established UK producers such as Denbies Wine Estate and Nyetimber were joined by a number of smaller wineries including Stanlake Park and Three Choirs Vineyards at the tasting at Stamford Bridge, the home of Chelsea FC in west London.