. It goes inside Oz's selection of wine producers, bringing their stories and the landscape to life with humour and good judgment. I loved his tale about Wiston Estate's original West Sussex winery. 'The Gorings had little money left… but Dermot [Sugrue, then the winemaker] found the run-down turkey abattoir with its high ceilings and thought he could make it into a perfect no-frills winery. (After leaving school he had worked in a beef abattoir for 14 months. Turkey abattoir? Easy.)' For cooks, Cindy-Marie Harvey's Watercress, Willow and Wine: A Celebration of Recipes and Wines from English Vineyards (Whitefox, £25) would make a good companion to Oz's book. I first met Harvey in a vineyard. A few Telegraph readers will know her too, because she has spent her career organising and accompanying trips to wine regions. She knows her food and it's the recipes, matched to English wines, that are my favourite part of her book. Salmon coulibiac, Kentish-apple tarte Tatin, watercress scones… I'm hungry just reading it. Among the other good wine books out this year is On Champagne: A Tapestry of Tales To Celebrate the Greatest Sparkling Wine of All (Académie du Vin Library, £30). English-wine aficionados, don't complain to me about the title, I didn't write it – though I did contribute a short essay on rosé Champagne to the rattlebag of tales, which also features Joe Fattorini on Champagne socialism (via Gary Neville and){kind=link}
From updated guides to English vineyards to insightful essay collections, this has been a vintage year for wine literature
At the last count there were 897 vineyards and 197 wineries in Great Britain with, unsurprisingly, most of the vineyards and all but two of the wineries in England. Wine tourism is also growing ‘exponentially’, says WineGB, and if you intend to explore British vineyards, either literally or remotely – from home with a glass – then you need a guide.
Who better than Oz Clarke? His book English Wine was first published two years ago, but so rapid is the pace of change within the industry that it has already been updated, in a recent new edition (Pavilion, £20). It goes inside Oz’s selection of wine producers, bringing their stories and the landscape to life with humour and good judgment.
I loved his tale about Wiston Estate’s original West Sussex winery. ‘The Gorings had little money left… but Dermot [Sugrue, then the winemaker] found the run-down turkey abattoir with its high ceilings and thought he could make it into a perfect no-frills winery. (After leaving school he had worked in a beef abattoir for 14 months. Turkey abattoir? Easy.)’
For cooks, Cindy-Marie Harvey’s Watercress, Willow and Wine: A Celebration of Recipes and Wines from English Vineyards (Whitefox, £25) would make a good companion to Oz’s book. I first met Harvey in a vineyard. A few Telegraph readers will know her too, because she has spent her career organising and accompanying trips to wine regions. She knows her food and it’s the recipes, matched to English wines, that are my favourite part of her book. Salmon coulibiac, Kentish-apple tarte Tatin, watercress scones… I’m hungry just reading it.