Best English white wines 2022

By Tanya Jackson

Published: Friday, 06 May 2022 at 12:00 am

It’s fair to say that English sparkling wine, with its international recognition, originally paved the way for still English whites. However, these wines are beginning to blossom into their own little scene, with Norfolk vineyard Winbirri scooping a platinum Decanter award in 2017 and in 2021, Kent vineyard Chapel Down picking up a gold.

English white wine is less divisive than the red, having a naturally clean and fresh taste that matches existing market demands. It is still early days, and as new grapes such as Madeleine Angevine, Chasselas and Reichensteiner begin to arrive on vineyards, we’re expecting some exciting and inventive blends to emerge across the next few years. This is a glorious time to get into English wine.

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Vineyard and wine estate, Dorking, Surrey, England./Credit: Getty Images

What does English white wine taste like?

English white wines tend to be at the lighter end of white wine due to our cooler climate – there’s no over-ripening, with a healthy variety of flavour profiles within that. In general, English white wine is fresh and medium dry, with a few drier exceptions. The two rising stars of the scene are Bacchus and Chardonnay, both with characteristics unique to our growing conditions:

Bacchus

The bigger buzz on the English white wine scene is about the Bacchus grape. Named for the Roman god of wine, it was bred in the 1930s and has primarily been used in Germany where Riesling grapes don’t ripen fully. Grown in the German terroir and climate, its low acidity means it’s more often mixed into other blends to bulk out the flavour. However, in England, our cooler conditions mean the grapes can reach a higher acidity, albeit with a lower yield than in warmer countries, which is how we get the dry, gooseberry and kiwi flavours akin to a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc.

Chardonnay

Poor Chardonnay. It was once a respectable wine, before Bridget Jones, Alanis Morrisette and Footballers’ Wives came along. US wine producers of the 1990s didn’t help either, with the trend for highly oaked, overripe Chardonnays that were high in alcohol. For a long time, Burgundy was the only part of the world that had the knowledge and experience to know how to produce quality Chardonnay wine, so much so that it is the only varietal (ie grape used to make a single variety of wine) that they’re allowed to grow in its northern wine region, Chablis.

But Chardonnay’s reputation is set to change. We’ve been planting more and more vines in the UK, as it’s one of the three traditional grapes used in sparkling wine – and now makes up a third of plantings. In our cooler climate, this highly versatile grape produces wine with a medium to light body and takes on flavours of apple, quince and pear, instead of the heavy, marigold-coloured Chardonnays we’ve been used to. Expect a leaner, more subtle palate, with fresh acidity.

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Flint vineyard, Norfolk/Credit: Flint vineyard

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The Best English white wines of 2022

Hattingley Valley Still White 2020

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A triumphant Chardonnay from this Hampshire vineyard, which is better known for its sparkling wines. Produced in the dry, hot lockdown summer of 2020, head winemaker Emma Rice said, “With all the time in the world to spend in the vineyards we were able to nurture certain plots to ultimate ripeness, hence this, our first Still Chardonnay.” True to her word, the wine won bronze at the International Wine Challenge in 2021, given the summary of “A crisp, linear nose with refreshing citrus and peardrop character.”

  • Grapes: Chardonnay
  • Region: Hampshire
  • Vineyard: Like many farmers struggling to make farming pay, the Robinsons of Hattingley Valley turned to winemaking initially as a diversification project, back in 2008. They now have a 600-tonne ‘eco-friendly’ winery, built under the direction of head winemaker Emma Rice – twice winner of the UK Winemaker of the Year award, in 2014 and 2016. Rice sources grapes from different terroirs all over the UK as well as the Hattingley Estate in pursuit of new blends.