The Grapes Behind English Wine
From the German-bred whites that built England's reputation to the hardy reds solving its shortest growing seasons, a guide to the grapes in the ground here, and where to find a bottle of each.
Bacchus
Bred in Germany in the 1930s and largely ignored there since, Bacchus found a second life in England, becoming the country's closest thing to a house white.
Chardonnay
England's most widely planted grape by far, Chardonnay underpins most English sparkling wine and is increasingly made as a serious still wine too, in a Chablis-like style.
Dornfelder
Nicknamed “the bank manager's grape” for its famously heavy yields, Dornfelder is Germany's bold, dark-skinned red, usually blended into England's cool-climate reds and rosés.
Ortega
Bred in Germany in 1948, Ortega was already growing in England by the early 1970s, prized for ripening early and shrugging off frost.
Phoenix
Bred in Germany from Bacchus itself, Phoenix is a lighter, more herbal cousin, aromatic and disease-resistant, grown in smaller pockets across England and Wales.
Pinot Meunier
The third grape of Champagne, rarely bottled alone in England, but when it is, it's a soft, red-fruited surprise.
Pinot Noir
England's second most planted grape, Pinot Noir is the backbone of most English sparkling rosé, and increasingly a serious still red in its own right.
Pinot Noir Précoce
A naturally occurring mutation of Pinot Noir that ripens three weeks earlier, now one of England's most widely planted and most awarded red grapes.
Regent
Germany's most widely planted hybrid red, Regent solves the same cool-climate problem as Rondo, and is grown at 66 vineyards across England and Wales.
Reichensteiner
Bred in Germany in 1939 for reliability rather than flair, Reichensteiner rounds out many of England's sparkling and still white blends without ever being the star.
Rondo
Bred specifically to survive a cold, unpredictable climate, Rondo has become one of England's most widely planted red grapes.
Schönburger
Released in 1979 from the same German institute that bred Bacchus and Ortega, Schönburger is one of England's rarest grapes, an intensely perfumed pink-skinned white suited to a maritime climate.
Seyval Blanc
Bred in France and shut out of EU quality wine for being a hybrid, Seyval Blanc was for decades England's most planted grape, and Breaky Bottom has taken gold with it since 1993.
Siegerrebe
Bred in Germany in 1929, Siegerrebe is Ortega's own parent grape, an intensely perfumed, low-acid white now grown in some of England's coolest vineyard sites.
Solaris
Bred in Germany in 1975 to survive cold winters, Solaris has become a reliable cool-climate specialist grown from Cornwall to North Yorkshire and across Wales.