Here, the speciality is the strongly flavoured Bacchus wines. In East Anglia all vineyards concentrate on the Muller Thurgau grape. Contract wine-making is available from Shawsgate and New Hall vineyards. The usual vineyard clutter as the harvest comes in The wineries themselves represent a serious investment for the owners. Charles Cunningham at Wooldings in Hampshire has invested several hundred thousand pounds in 'state of the art' equipment which enables him to produce Red, white and sparkling wines of a very high quality.
Chemists seem to form a significant group of winemakers.
In Kent, former Imperial college lecturer John Gibson has had considerable success at Bearsted and the Danilewicz brothers are making Quality wines at Barnsole . In Avon, Mumfords is also run by Dr. Cox What does set apart the English wines from much of the foreign competition is the wide variety of grapes that can be grown. There are no French style restrictions on what can be grown and grapes such as Schonburger, Reichensteiner and Huxelrebebe are encouraged. The result is some wines with strong grape flavours that unlike the popular Chardonnay, do not need a large amount of oak to give them some taste. To me, it is the sign of a good wine maker when the natural flavours come through.