A lot of bottle
Long associated with fabulous food, the Cotswolds has become a centre for world-class wines, spirits and lagers. Emma Hughes visits some of the region’s top producers
For some reason, they always seem to flower during Wimbledon fortnight,’ observes Thomas Shaw of the vines covering the green, gently undulating slopes in front of us.
It’s early July and I’ve come to the Three Choirs Vineyard, near Newent in Gloucestershire (www.three-choirs-vineyards.co.uk; 01531 890223), to find out why Mr Shaw and his team have succeeded where so many others have failed.
These 75 acres can truthfully claim to have been where the English wine renaissance took root—the first vines went into the ground in 1973. And although many of the grapes here are German varieties (riesling, Siegerrebe, reichensteiner), the wines made from them have a unique and not at all Continental feel.
‘People occasionally come into our shop asking for a Sauvignon Blanc and they look a bit put out when we tell them we don’t have any,’ discloses Mr Shaw, the managing director. ‘But we’re an English vineyard— that’s what we want to work with and what we’d like our wines to reflect.’
He continues: ‘our sparkling sales, for instance, are growing, but we’re not trying to copy Champagne. our Classic Cuvée is fruitier and less intense than the French equivalent and it’s 12% rather than the usual 14%.’
The spirit of Three Choirs isn’t simply English, it’s recognisably of the Cotswolds: warm, hands-on, infused with a deep respect for all things local. When Mr Shaw arrived in 1994, the new winery had just been built, but visitors were thin on the ground—those who made the trek were mostly ‘WI coach parties’. He created a place in which people could come to drink and eat together and buy bottles to take home, with none of the stuffiness traditionally associated with good wines. ‘There’s no sommelier looking over your shoulder in our restaurant—you can just enjoy what you’re drinking.’
It’s the same have-a-go ethos that’s shaped the workings of the winery. Three Choirs sends 250,000 bottles of its own wines out into the world each year, but produces the same amount again on behalf of local growers, who bring in their grapes for processing. Thus, instead of the swimmingpool-sized pits you usually find, the presses are relatively petite, two-ton affairs. ‘It helps, when you’re trying out lots of different things,’ explains Mr Shaw. ‘We like experimenting.’
Some 60% of Three Choirs’ business is done within a 50-mile radius and there’s a lot of foot traffic. In the shop and tasting room, surrounded by jars of Cotswolds honey and biscuits, visitors can get to know the wines. There’s no po-faced sniffing and swilling, just lots of smiling people comparing notes. ‘We only get the occasional person visiting who wants a spittoon,’ Mr Shaw tells me. ‘They’re mostly French.’
He gives me a glass of herby, single-variety Bacchus from 2013 to try (‘You can really taste the elderflower’) and some May Hill, a medium-sweet white named after a local landmark, which I can imagine goes brilliantly with blue cheese. There’s also an offdry, unexpectedly complex rosé. ‘It’s softer than you might think— a bit like the weather around here,’ Mr Shaw notes, adding with a smile: ‘There’s nothing here that’s going to offend you.’
Thirty-five miles to the south-east, just outside Ciren-
‘We’re an English vineyard, that’s what we’d like our wines to reflect’