The case for English wines: 6 top bottles to buy at Waitrose and beyond

Those of you who know my story will know I owe my career in wine to an interview I did as a budding student journalist at Camel Valley in Cornwall well over a decade ago. I didn’t know much about wine in those days, but winemaker Sam Lindo was kind enough to spend an afternoon with me tasting through his range of wines and explaining how English wine was made – and why it was exciting to take notice.

A year and a half later, and many other English vineyard visits in between, I launched the specialist wine merchant Novel Wines and our first bottles were English wine. We had a floral, juicy white wine from a tiny acre vineyard in Somerset called Oatley Vineyard, run by the charming Jane and Iain Awty. Those early Oatley wines would soon be joined by the likes of Aldwick Estate, also Somerset, Raimes in Hampshire, the Spurriers’ Bride Valley Vineyard in Dorset, Bluestone from my old home town in Salisbury, Wiltshire, the Simpsons wines from Kent, and many more.

While it won’t be news that English sparkling wine is world class, our still wines have never been better either. Assuming you don’t get a bad weather year (and we’ve had two terrible vintages in 2023 and 2024), English still whites can be dry, fresh and bursting with citrus, and even our reds in warmer years (particularly those from the Crouch Valley in Essex) combine Burgundy-esque berry fruit with a purity and freshness I really enjoy.

But if you’re new to English wines, where should you start? There’s so much choice now with thousands of vineyards and even more bottles to explore.

One of the earlier champions for English wines was the upmarket supermarket Waitrose. If you have a Waitrose Cellar account, you’ve got access to even more wines than you do in-store; you’ll find over 70 English and Welsh wines, far more than you do in person as the ranging can differ depending where you are in the country.

Where you should start shopping for English wine at Waitrose Cellar

The place where Waitrose thrives for home-grown wine is in its sparkling wine selection. If you’re after English still wines, I’ve got some tips on that a bit later. That’s not to say there aren’t some great still wines at the major supermarket to explore (not least the absolutely classic Flint Dry white wine from Chapel Down), just that the bubbles take the biscuit.

Let’s kick things off with Hambledon. I first found these wines when I was invited to an English wine versus Champagne tasting in the downstairs rooms at The Walcot in Bath. We were met by a Champagne-trained Frenchman, who ironically was the man waving the flag for English sparkling wine during the event. His reasoning was simple: England now had the climate, cool, marginal and crisp, to grow the classic grapes of Champagne and produce world class fizz. His approach is low intervention, letting the fruit do the talking, with the Hambledon sparkling wines showing purity and bite. The balance between electric-like high acidities and the crunch of perfectly ripe granny smith apple and zippy lemon was stimulating and moreish. Their Classic Cuvée is a masterful non-vintage blend and you can pick it up for its best price at Waitrose (£33.00), saving a fair amount more than if you were to buy it directly from the vineyard.

While Hambledon’s style is fruit-driven and pure, that zingy and green style of sparkling wine isn’t all England has to offer. Two other fizz from Waitrose Cellar offer something entirely different: Squerryes’ Vintage Reserve Brut from the excellent 2019 vintage is a masterclass in lees ageing and time under cork, giving richness to the fizz that echoes some of those toastier Champagnes, and Balfour’s Leslie Reserve Gold has a slightly sweeter, more red apple-like fruitiness with flaky pastry like lees.

This high calibre of fizz is continued through a range of brilliant rosé sparklings. There’s the Cornish Camel Valley Rosé Sparkling I’ve already written about here many times and is a firm favourite of mine in the Waitrose line-up, but there’s also the utterly fabulous Wiston Estate Rosé Brut, which is a steal for £35.00! Wiston Estate wines used to be made by England’s most celebrated winemaker Dermot Sugrue and the standard hasn’t dropped, even if the style has changed. Wiston wines are some of the best fizz kicking about and it’s great to see them sold on Waitrose Cellar.

After some real treats? Try a specialist

Of course, if you really want some good English wines it’s better to visit a specialist. If your local wine shop doesn’t have a good selection then, a) you should tell them off, there really isn’t and excuse; and b) I’ve got you covered.

The online English wine specialist Grape Britannia is a good one-stop shop for a whole host of English wines. While the Waitrose range has a strong selection of bubbles, you’re very limited for choice when it comes to the stills, especially for red and rosé. Not so much at Grape Britannia.

If I were going to select six wines from this specialist, I’d plum entirely for still wines. Your case would not be complete without the absolutely excellent 2023 Dancer in Pink rosé (£21.99, Grape Britannia) from Hampshire-based Black Chalk winery. They use their fine Pinot Noir fruit, which in some years is good enough for red, to instead make an outstanding rosé. It is one of the best home-grown pink wines on the market, with more body and texture than the rosé you might usually pick-up. Enjoy it lightly chilled and let it come up to temperature, especially with a range of salty snacks.

I’d then add a trio of white wines: 2023 Sauvignon Blanc from Woodchester Valley Vineyard in the south Cotswolds (£29.99, Grape Britannia) is expensive because it has achieved critical acclaim and it’s in limited supply; grown on limestone soils in a very marginal climate, the wine’s got exceptional bite and a beautifully aromatic, fresh asparagus and green apple nose. Add to that with the incredibly tasty and unique 2023 Derringstone Pinot Meunier white from Simpsons in Kent (£24.99, Grape Britannia), which is lightly-hued pink and nods more towards pear than apple with a slightly nutty, bittersweet hint and a juicy, long finish. Those two moreish whites should be joined by the 2024 Bacchus Fumé from Flint Vineyard in Norfolk (£19.99, Grape Britannia). A fumé style wine is inspired by Robert Mondavi, who oak-matured his Sauvignon Blanc and put it through malo, giving the wines a lightly smoky, leesy, micro-oxidised style that gives the wine a fatter, broader appeal. In Flint’s Bacchus, it creates the best home-grown white wine for your Friday’s fish supper.

With one exceptional rosé and a trio of English white wines, it’s time to be brave and drink some home-grown red. Although you’re not really being brave, because from these two producers you’re only going to get wines made in the best vintages and the quality is undeniably good. Simpson’s Estate’s 2023 Pinot Noir (£31.99, Grape Britannia) seems to be a rare survivor of a generally poor English vintage, but the lower yields have seen the winery make a red of poised concentration with beautiful red berry fruit and a savoury, forest floor like bite on the finish. Simpsons is joined in its uniqueness for the 2023 vintage by one of England’s best red wine producers, Danbury Ridge. The Essex fruit in their 2023 Pinot Noir (£41.99, Grape Britannia) is silky-smooth and layered with cranberry, wild strawberry and pomegranate. It’s a just a joy to drink this one. Yes, it’s pricey, but good Pinot isn’t cheap anyway. Pinot fans should definitely try something from Danbury Ridge; these guys and Riverview Crouch Valley are two of the best red wine producers we have in this country.

So, there’s my sparkling and still mixed picks from Waitrose’s specialist cellar site and the six still wines that will open your eyes to the quality available from England from the specialist merchant Grape Britannia. If you give them a go, let me know what you thought of the wines. There’s loads more to explore next…