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Bottoms up! English wine is finally coming into its own

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June 25, 2026 · 1:32 PM
Bottoms up! English wine is finally coming into its own

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English sparkling whites are now increasingly being joined on shop shelves by fresh reds and knockout rosés. Photograph: Alamy/PA

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English sparkling whites are now increasingly being joined on shop shelves by fresh reds and knockout rosés. Photograph: Alamy/PA

Wine

Bottoms up! English wine is finally coming into its own

Higher volumes are being produced, so prices are coming down, and there’s a now a whole range of exciting styles to choose from

Mina Holland

Thu 25 Jun 2026 08.00 EDT

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A s a fully signed-up member of the Guardian-reading, tofu-eating wokerati, I’m not especially nationalistic, but I’m more than ready to champion our best food and drink traditions. We can bask in a long history of winemaking – it dates back certainly to the middle ages and probably even to the Romans – which is now being seriously scaled up: in March, the Food Standards Agency reported that 2025’s English wine production was up 55% on the previous year. That, and the exceptional quality of those examples I’ve tasted in the past 12 months, seems reason alone to celebrate this year’s English wine week.

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For decades, English wine has been dogged by a reputation for being all mouth and no trousers: bougie pricing, underwhelming drinking. While there’s been well-deserved noise about our sparkling wine, some curmudgeons question whether it’s really worth champagne prices. Meanwhile, our still wines can be considered a squinty novelty: bracingly acidic, incongruously expensive, something to say you’ve tried before you head back to the continental Europe aisle. But I’m here to tell you that English wine is finally finding its trousers.

So what changed? First, higher volumes mean prices at the lower end of the market are coming down, so what we pay per bottle feels more in tune with its contents. The new vintage of Waitrose’s Blueprint English White and The Wine Society’s English White (made by well-known wineries in Surrey and Gloucestershire, respectively) are blends that promise “easy-drinking” and “hedgerow” notes for less than £12 a pop, and are the result of a warm 2025. Meanwhile, Aldi’s Specially Selected Bowler & Brolly English White Cuvée is just £5.99 and a blend of nine grape varieties, including bacchus and climate-proof hybrids such as reichensteiner and seyval blanc. All are a little sharp for my taste, but if you’re a fan of crisp sauvignon blanc and aperitif wines, they’re worth a try.

England is now making wine in a great range of styles, too, often with a trendily lowish ABV. Try Marks & Spencer’s 11% English Orange Wine made in Kent with a blend of chardonnay, pinot gris and aromatic ortega; it’s a quaffable introduction to the skin-contact genre and a peachy change from pale summer rosé. We also make funky, bottle-fermented col fondo (in which the yeast sediment is left to age with the wine for a cloudy, savoury finish) and rustic, naturally effervescent pét-nat such as those by Tim Wildman MW of the Lost in a Field project, which recovers forgotten grape varieties planted by “eccentric amateurs” in the middle of the last century and transforms them into low-intervention fizz. We make elegant still wines as well, among them Simpsons’ The Roman Road Chardonnay, which rivals a cool-climate burgundy, and some knockout rosé – see Ben Walgate’s biodynamic cuvees from East Sussex – as well as blinding, fresh reds such as Woodfine’s Lost Vagus pinot noir; in warm years, as in 2025, we even make dessert wine (see Denbies’ Noble Harvest Ortega). I’m not exactly flying a St George’s flag, but I do feel proud – and, I’m happy to report, all pair pretty well with tofu.

Seven English wines to whet your whistle

Waitrose Blueprint English White£10.25, 11%. This bacchus and ortega blend is light, tangy and ideal for a veggie dinner – with English asparagus, perhaps.

M&S English Orange Wine£15 Ocado, 11%. A pretty, peachy gateway to orange wine from Kent – good aperitif or with nibbles.

Ben Walgate Rosato 2022£16.20 Bottle Apostle, 10.5%. A smoky, deep-hued biodynamic rosé from pinot noir and chardonnay that’s banging for a barbecue.

Simpson****s The Roman Road 2023£29 The Wine Society, 13%. From a single, chalky-soiled South Downs plot in a cool year, this has about it a real whiff of burgundy.

Ark Pinot Gris 2022£18 arkwines.co.uk, 12%. Is it a rosé? Is it an orange? Either way, it’s gorgeous: an apricot-hued beauty from a tiny producer in Suffolk.

Berry Bros & Rudd English Sparkling Rosé£29.95, 12.5%. Made in the South Downs by Hambledon vineyard, this classy crowdpleaser will see you through from nibbles to pud.

Domaine Hugo Botley’s Col Fondo 2022£35, Good Wine Shop), 10.5%. A cloudy, buttery unfined fizz from (IMHO) the best in the English sparkling biz.

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Comments (6)

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Guardian Pick

I don't think there is any doubt that the quality is there, but they are quite pricey. It seems odd that we can ship in decent wines from, literally, the other side of the world for a cheaper price. I wonder what the relevant issues are... start up costs, yields, taxes?

Jump to comment

TopographicTail48 minutes ago

0

Guardian Pick

I don't think there is any doubt that the quality is there, but they are quite pricey. It seems odd that we can ship in decent wines from, literally, the other side of the world for a cheaper price. I wonder what the relevant issues are... start up costs, yields, taxes?

Jump to comment

TopographicTail48 minutes ago

0

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