Wine with Blake Creedon
To many, the discovery that grapes for wine can be grown on these islands at all will come as a surprise. But yes it can be done — particularly in the south and east of England. In part, the spread of vineyards beyond its traditional climatic boundaries can be put down to climate change. But really, just as much credit can be claimed by the three factors that have had a far more profound effect on winemaking in recent decades — improved grape-growing and winemaking technology; the hike in standards of education; and more open markets.
The second surprise is that this neophyte wine industry would aim at making posh sparkling wines — when one might expect them to start with ‘ordinary’ table wines. This, too, is based on a misapprehension. In fact, sparkling wines are most closely associated with the cooler margins of the wine growing world — in the northern edge, Champagne; and its mirror image in the southern hemisphere — from Tasmania in the icy Antarctic waters off Australia’s south coast, to the southernmost wine region of Chile, Bio-Bío.
