Camel Valley

With less than 72 hours to go, have you made your plans for the Big Day? For those not planning to don their tiaras and tails for Denbies Wedding Celebration Ball, here's my definitively selective, significantly random round-up.

Seven of the UK’s leading winemakers are coming to town to share with consumers their visions in a new series of mid-week tasting dinners.

In a UK first, the award-winning Artisan & Vine wine bar is teaming up with DrinkBritain.com to launch a Best of English Meet the Winemaker series of events. Taking over Artisan & Vine’s popular Wednesday evening slot, the winemakers will guide guests through five of their wines alongside a three course meal specially created by resident chef James Robson.

Despite an inglorious summer, England and Wales look as if they have secured a bumper harvest, certainly in terms of volume. Ideal weather during Wimbledon coincided with the all important flowering phase, meaning that all the grapes that could develop did – often not the case in the UK.

Chapel Down in Kent reported 30% more fruit than in 2009, RidgeView in Sussex saw its largest harvest to date, while Camel Valley in Cornwall took in 50 tons compared with the norm of 40 tons. Meanwhile over in Wales, Parva Farm saw its second largest crop, with seemingly good quality too.

Camel Valley Pinot Noir 2008 was crowned top international sparkling rosé while Nyetimber’s Classic Cuvée 2003 came second in the non-champagne sparkling white category of the Bollicine del Mundo, the sparkli

Sparkling rosé has a strong future in England says the UK’s Winemaker of the Year, Sam Lindo of Camel Valley in Cornwall. Having just been awarded the International Wine Challenge’s Sparkling Rosé Trophy for his Pinot Noir 2008 ahead of rivals in Champagne and across the world, Lindo said that the whole family was “delighted” and admitted that the news “was still sinking in”.