Joomla 1.5 Template By Youjoomla.com

Grape-wine has been produced in East Anglia ever since the Romans planted vines on varied sites around Great Britain. The mixture of low rainfall and limestone and chalk soils made them especially successful in this region. We all know that by 1086 more than 40 percent of Britain's recorded vineyards were East in Anglia. (For details, see p. 4 of Hugh Barty-King's A Tradition of English Wine, Oxford 1977)

In what's been called" the great English wine revival" of the past thirty years, many vineyards have been planted in East Anglia where vignerons try to defend the practices of the past by making certain that we remain the premier wine-producing area of the country. They change from little back garden undertakings by newbies to commercial concerns varying from one to a hundred acres.

The Vines
A range of vines are cultivated; the majority are attempted and proved to provide quality wines in Britain, but growers also try experimenting with other ones. The most widely grown vine is Mller Thurgau, which produces a perfumed fruity wine. Madeleine Angevine, Huxelrebe and Seyval Blanc also produce good wines in this dry and bright area. Of the new kinds, Bacchus, Reichensteiner, Dornfelder and Rondo are establishing successful. While the oldest vine of all, Pinot Noir continues to prosper in East Anglia. As in France, vines behave differently in different vineyards, according to soil, cultivation systems and local climate, so no 2 wines are precisely alike. A couple of vineyards produce "varietal" wines made of single grapes. Identifying the differences is one of the wonders of visiting a vineyard.