{"id":2643,"date":"2022-12-30T10:56:23","date_gmt":"2022-12-30T10:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/?p=2643"},"modified":"2023-02-10T14:53:54","modified_gmt":"2023-02-10T14:53:54","slug":"british-wine-and-english-wine-cutting-through-the-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/british-wine-and-english-wine-cutting-through-the-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"British wine and English wine \u2013 cutting through the confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

British wine? English wine? English wine? British wine? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Confused already? Then join the world\u2019s favourite search engine \u2013 Google. The two terms are all the same to it. Put in \u201cBritish Wine\u201d and you get almost exactly the same results as searching for English Wine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most people \u2013 or at least most outside Great Britain \u2013 think along with Google that the two are synonymous. After all, the people of Britain mostly speak English and England is the biggest part by population of Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But not when it comes to wine. English wine is a product of usually small wineries mostly in the southern part of the country. It has grown up in the last few decades as it was realised that the Romans grew grapes in this country, the latitude is not noticeably different from that in many wine nations in Europe such as Germany, and that land devoted to grapes can produce greater financial rewards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not massive in scale. But the result is that English wines, especially whites and fizzy varieties, are good. They win prizes, often beating champagne in blind tastings. They excite wine writers. And they are often at the top end of the price range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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British wine \u2013 despite the search engine confusion \u2013 is altogether different. It is cheap. It wins no prizes. And wine writers would sooner jump into a pool of wine-lake red than drink it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is made from imported concentrated grape juice. This is mixed before being fermented and bottled. It is no different from the home brew wine kits popular in the UK around 40 years ago (you can still buy them) except in scale. British wine is truly industrial. And truly not recommended. You probably will never find it on a wine list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five decades ago, British wine was popular, especially the sweet \u201csherry\u201d versions. But as people have become more wine-aware, its popularity has plummeted. With reason.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Nevertheless, there are some interesting varieties. Ginger Wine (Crabbies and Stones are the best known but there are some supermarket own labels) is a British wine flavoured with ginger and raisins. It is about as strong as red wine (about 13.5%). You can buy a bottle for \u00a36 or less and it is most used mixed with blended Scotch to produce a Whisky Mac.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there is Buckfast Tonic Wine. This was traditionally made by Benedictine monks at Buckfast Abbey in Devon. It is now made industrially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It is strong \u2013 about 15% – and costs around \u00a37 to \u00a38 a bottle. The attraction is the high degree of added caffeine \u2013 which makes it illegal in many jurisdictions. It is supposed to taste like a mixture of bubble gum and cough medicine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But while mass sales are now largely in Scotland and Northern Ireland where it is supposedly the drink of choice of the unfortunate, nothing stays for ever. Mixologists in trendy London bars are experimenting with using it as a component of cocktails.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If like us you love food and drinks and want to learn more, join us on our awards wining Secret Food Tours <\/a>and get a fantastic experience with local food loving guides<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

British wine? English wine? English wine? British wine? Confused already? Then join the world\u2019s favourite…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41,808,798],"tags":[979],"class_list":["post-2643","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-england","category-fun-facts","category-local-tips","tag-cultural-tours"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2643"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2650,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2643\/revisions\/2650"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2643"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2643"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.secretfoodtours.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2643"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}