The wines of Great Britain

by Stephen Skelton MW
The wines of Great Britain
Available as:
Paperback
 
Ebook
 
Pub Date: May 2019
Kindle ISBN: 9781910902837
Print ISBN: 9781905940691
Pages: 320
Price:
£35.00

Great Britain is a premium wine-producing region, with around 650 vineyards in England and Wales covering some 2,750 hectares and producing sparkling and still wines. English and Welsh wines have won many prestigious awards recently. Stephen Skelton is the leading authority on the wines of Great Britain.

The wines of Great Britain is a comprehensive survey of the history of the country’s wines, as well as of the current state of the wine industry and its future prospects. After a short introduction showing where the wine of Great Britain is in 2019 and where it might go in the future Skelton considers the history of winemaking in the UK from King Alfred in the fifth century, through the medieval period to recent developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The wines of Great Britain then takes us on a tour of contemporary viticulture and winemaking, examining trends in plantings and vineyard layout, varieties, rootstocks and clones, vineyard sizes, modern wineries and styles of wine. Skelton considers regional identities as well as the branding of UK sparkling wines and their market position.

A substantial part of this important book is the 21 detailed biographies of the most important, exciting and innovative producers and the wines they create. Wine businesses profiled in detail include Breaky Bottom, Chapel Down, Nyetimber, Oxney Organic Estate, Sixteen Ridges Vineyard and Yorkshire Heart Vineyard. Shorter entries on other significant or up and coming producers also feature.