Top 5 English wines

This week, we’ve been celebrating English Wine Week. Not so long ago, the event had the air of a well-intentioned village fete offering home-made cakes of varying quality from hobbyist bakers. In recent years, though, the quality of the wine has grown in line with that of the country’s home baking, and, amid a host of similar enterprises (there’s now a day – or week – for pretty much everything, it seems) this year’s event was positively purring with excellence, intrigue and energy.

As a result, we were spoiled for choice when it came to picking out five wines to highlight on our weekly #HandpickedDrinks initiative. The five we selected were all recognised at last year’s IWSC, and span still and sparkling, blanc de blancs and rosé. Fizz remains the country’s calling card, but with Oz Clarke causing a stir this week by claiming England could not only give Champagne a run for its money, but one day rival the likes of Chablis and Provence with still wines, the future is bright, right across the board…