Harrow and Hope: another great English sparkling wine.

From a peak of over 400 vineyards in the late 1980s, by 2000 one third of these had given up, but plantings have since accelerated, helped by the growing success of English sparkling wines. In 2004, a panel judging European sparkling wines awarded most of the top ten positions to English wines – the remaining positions going to French Champagnes. - 'Wine from the United Kingdom.' Wikipedia.

Some 80 wineries launched in the UK last year, up from 64 in 2016, and more than double the 36 that opened five years ago, according to accountancy UHY Hacker Young. - The Drinks Business

In 2018, 1.6 million vines were planted with a further 2 million expected in 2019. - Social Vignerons, Febrary 2019

There are now 2,888ha of vineyards in England and Wales, nearly 350 of which were planted last year. - Jancis Robinson, Financial Times, March 2019.

These facts are not unknown but it is good to recall them together with the fact that over 60% of English and Welsh production is of sparkling wine. The reason for that is apparently as follows:

In the 1970s one large English wine producer dumped a glut of wine on the market at a very low price. This gave the public the impression that English wine was nasty and cheap. The industry got together and decided sparkling wine was the way out of this bind. First of all you don't need the same degree of ripeness as you do in still wine and secondly, what is unsold one year will improve in bottle and may be sold at a higher price the next year.

Had this chain of events not occurred, English and Welsh wine might have looked more like Dutch wine where the ratio of sparkling wine to still wine is the opposite.

Despite the acclaim English sparkling wine has received we were never tempted to go out and buy a case. The odd bottle was always welcome but just now as we have reported, some seriously delicious new English sparklers have come our way.

The first was Simpsons and now we can add Harrow and Hope to that short list.

We have passed Harrow and Hope many times on the edge of Marlow, Buckinghamshire and always meant to pay Mr, Harrow or Mr (or Ms.) Hope a visit.

Cellar Door

This we finally did and discovered that the owner/winemakers are actually Mr. and Mrs. Laithwaite and that the Harrow is the agricultural implement 2 of which were broken in tilling the 6 acres of hard clay land the vineyard was planted on. Hope is what all wine producers on these shore need in abundance.

Of course Laithwaite is just about the most prominent name in the British wine scene. Tony Laithwaite has been the most successful wine merchant of the times, or of The Times since a large part of his business consists of The Sunday Times Wine Club. Lately, he and his wife have gone into wine production by permission of the Royal Parks at Windsor Great Park. The sparkling wine is of course called Windsor Great Park.

Harrow and Hope is the baby of Henry, Tony Laithwaite's son and Henry's wife Kaye.

State of the art equipment

Their approach was rigorously professional from the start and as at Simpsons, this has paid off resulting in a very high standard of sparkling wine by any standards. It is worth pointing out that both owners at Simpsons and Harrow and Hope have or had wine estates in France, so they really know what they are doing. Indeed there is a whole new generation planting vineyards here with a background of making wine abroad such as Ben Witchell of Flint.

Grapes planted in both Windsor Great Park and Harrow and Hope are Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier.

British wine industry is one of the fastest growing in the world

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

New figures show that the UK is one of the world’s fastest growing wine regions.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

New figures show that the UK is one of the world’s fastest growing wine regions.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

New figures show that the UK is one of the world’s fastest growing wine regions.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

New figures show that the UK is one of the world’s fastest growing wine regions.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/V

New figures show that the UK is one of the world’s fastest growing wine regions.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/

New figures show that the UK is one of the world’s fastest growing wine regions.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2019/05/28/british-wine-industry-is-one-of-the-fastest-growing-in-the-world-9700544/?ito=cbshare
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MetroUK | Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MetroUK/V