Grape&Grain
Meet the paper wine bottle coming to Scotland…
Peter Ranscombe ponders a cardboard wine bottle that’s been launched today – and revisits the wine inside. I ALWAYS feel more than a wee bit guilty on recycling day. As the blue box is lugged off the pavement and its contents heaved into the back of the bin lorry, I pause and think about the…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: If you like that, try this…
In the final article in his English Wine Week series, Peter Ranscombe takes your favourite styles of wine and finds an English alternative. WITH the names of weird-sounding grape varieties galore appearing on its labels – ranging from bacchus, otega and seyval blanc through to regent, rondo and dornfelder – English wine can sometimes feel like…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: The Welsh side of the story
In the penultimate installment in his series of articles for English Wine Week, Peter Ranscombe casts an eye over Welsh wines. IT MAY be called “English Wine Week” but this month’s celebration of all things vinous also includes vineyards and wineries in Wales. National identity is a minefield at the best of times within the UK’s…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: Urban wineries
Stretching from Gateshead to London, England has a growing urban winery scene, writes Peter Ranscombe in his latest English Wine Week article. WHEN you think of a winery, it’s natural to form a mental image of the sun-drenched rolling hills of France or Spain or Italy. Tyneside isn’t perhaps the first place that springs to…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: The college at the heart of the industry
Peter Ranscombe learns how winemakers are trained at Plumpton College – and tastes the fruits of their labours – in his latest English Wine Week article. IF I’D known it was possible to studying for a degree in winemaking then my UCAS form may have looked very different. Plumpton College near Brighton is the only…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: Still waters run deep
While it may be best known for its bubbles, don’t write off England’s still wines, writes Peter Ranscombe, in the latest installment of his English Wine Week series. ENGLISH wine production is dominated by sparklers, with bubbles accounting for 69% of the country’s total output. Yet that remaining 31% is producing some truly exciting still…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: Forever blowing bubbles
In today’s installment in his series to mark English Wine Week, Peter Ranscombe examines the style for which England is best known – sparkling wine. COMPARISONS between Champagne and English sparkling wine are inevitable – the same basin of chalk-rich soil that runs through the Champagne region pokes its head up again along England’s south coast.…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: Supermarket sweep
For the third article in his series to coincide with English Wine Week, Peter Ranscombe scans the supermarket shelves to find bottles available in Scotland. I LOVE bottle shops; few activities are more fun than browsing their shelves and coming away with a wine I’ve never tried. It’s almost – almost – as good as browsing…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: Bottles in Scottish shops
In the second in his series of articles to mark English Wine Week, Peter Ranscombe looks at the bottles available from Scotland’s independent wine merchants. ONE of the biggest stumbling blocks to trying English wine for the first time is finding it on the shop shelves or restaurant wine lists. Walk into most decent-sized bars…
Read MoreEnglish Wine Week: The Scots making English wine
It may say “English” on the label, but there’s a strong Scottish influence on many bottles, as Peter Ranscombe discovers in the first in a series of articles to mark English Wine Week. DROP the phrase “English wine” into conversation with a wine lover and usually one of two reactions will emerge. There’ll either be…
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