Beyond the South

The English wine map is being redrawn. A decade ago, it was reasonable to describe English wine as a predominantly southern, predominantly chalk-focused, predominantly sparkling phenomenon. Today, that neat summary fails to account for the biodynamic wines of the Wye Valley, the surprisingly creditable still wines of the East Anglian flatlands, and the pioneering viticultural ambition of a retired RAF pilot who planted vines at 53 degrees north in Yorkshire and declined to apologise for it.

Wales has emerged as the most interesting of the peripheral regions. Ancre Hill Estates, established by Richard and Joy Morris on a south-facing slope above Monmouth, applies biodynamic principles to viticulture with a rigour that would satisfy Rudolf Steiner himself. The resulting wines — a méthode traditionnelle sparkling and a range of still wines including Pinot Noir — have attracted attention from critics who expected little from Wales and found something genuinely compelling. The Wye Valley's microclimate, sheltered from westerly rain by the Black Mountains and warmed by the slow-moving river, provides growing conditions that are meaningfully better than the county's weather reputation suggests.

East Anglia benefits from England's driest climate — the region receives less annual rainfall than many Mediterranean wine regions — and its light, free-draining soils warm rapidly in spring. New Hall Vineyards in Essex, with 160 acres under vine, produces a remarkably consistent range of still wines. The Chiltern Hills of Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, where chalk meets beech woodland and the hillsides provide good elevation and southern exposure, are producing wines of increasing quality from estates including Bothy Vineyard and the Chiltern Valley.

Yorkshire should, by any viticultural logic, be too cold for viticulture. Leventhorpe Vineyard near Leeds has been demonstrating otherwise since 1985, producing wines from hybrid varieties specifically bred for marginal climates. They are curiosities rather than world-beaters, but they represent a spirit of English bloody-mindedness that the wine world should salute.

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