Discover English Wine Week 2020 – Online
It is the final few days of English Wine Week, which occurred during 20 – 28 June 2020 and fortunately the weather has been fair to enjoy a refreshing glass of sparkling English wine. English Wine Week is an annual celebration to raise awareness of English wines as so many people are not familiar with the types and range available. Let me know whether you might have heard about English Wine Week below.
Indeed, it was the Wines of Great Britain, the national association for the English and Welsh wines, that launched English Wine Week in a bid to achieve recognition amongst the world class wine regions.
What can you do during English Wine Week?
For 2020, due to the ongoing pandemic, there will be online events but you may be wondering what this week is about.
There will be vineyards undertaking virtual vineyard tours, virtual wine tastings, discounts offered and many other events. To find out more, the Visit England and Wines of Great Britain websites contain lists of daily events.
For most of this week, I have not been participating in the events listed on the Wines of Great Britain site, but participated in other events, and so I have now registered for a Bolney Wine Estate virtual wine tasting.
Bolney Wine Estate is Sussex based and therefore would be ideal for a day trip in line with the current guidelines whilst we are still under lockdown. The wine to be tasted in this event is the 2016 Blanc de Blancs, which is a sparkling wine. Whilst I did not register for the event in time to purchase the wine, I will certainly look forward to discovering more.
One of my first introductions to English and Welsh wines was at a wine tasting session organised by the East London Wine School. I particularly remembering tasting a Welsh red wine during the event. I was not aware that red Welsh wines existed but I remember that it had a very smooth texture. Have you ever tried Welsh wines before?
It was therefore delightful to join the final virtual quiz and wine tasting from the East London Wine School which was on the first day of English Wine Week. The wines sampled were the French sparkling wine Crémant and an English wine.
You may remember that I have mentioned Crémant a few times, as it describes sparkling wine made outside the Champagne region, and I sampled quite a few varieties whilst visiting Bordeaux, which are very quaffable. The English wine was that of a Bacchus wine, which is a white wine and there are sparkling varieties as well.
Both of these wines tasted can be found in the supermarkets at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Waitrose. I can provide more details about the specific brands featured in the wine tasting and so let me know in the comments if you would be interested.
Club Oenologique‘s Instagram Live session was a surprise addition to my English Wine Week events. It was not one that I had been aware of previously but details were provided to me by the magazine and so I eagerly joined to watch the wine discussion. It was very interesting as the conversation occurred with the CEO of Ridgeview wines, Tamara Roberts.
Ridgeview is a renowned English wine producer and specialises in sparkling wine. During the session, their Fitzrovia Rosé wine was mentioned, which sounded deliciously refreshing to me! It is also well known for being served to President Obama during an official banquet! This certainly sounds like a rosé to try!
I interviewed Simon Hawkins from Hawkins Bros. who are an English wine producer and seller. During English Wine Week, Hawkins Bros has been providing daily events at 7pm on Instagram Live and so do check them out!
Hawkins Bros has been in the wine production industry for 5 years now and run tastings in their shops or from the comfort of your own home. Their sparkling rosé is a popular choice at this time of year and so I look forward to sampling this. Based in Surrey, visiting Hawkins Bros would make a nice day trip. Hawkins Bros also feature within this year’s virtual edition of the Food and Drink Festival.
Forty Hall vineyard and Denbies Wine Estate are two English wine vineyards that I have visited before for wine tastings and so these are certainly recommended to visit.
There is definitely a lot to explore and discover during English Wine Week. Have you joined any events or sampled English wine before? Let me know in the comments below and about any events that may sound interesting.
