British wine - that sold in supermarkets for about £4 a bottle and made from imported grape juice - is not to be confused with English wine made with English grapes and is currently celebrating its annual promotional week explaining how English wine tastes great. But British wine is still hanging around and tastes awful. It really does. But why is it still here? When the homebrew world has moved on with such high-end wine kits that are basically made into British wine, why has the supermarket world lagged behind?
Brands Silver Bay Point, The Straw Hat, Three Mills and Willow and Stone are the main producers of British wines. Designed to appeal to wine tasting beginners, British wines are light tasting and have a sweetness that many enjoy. Plus they are also cheap. Being made into wine in the UK means there is no import duty added onto the selling price as there is for all other foreign-made wines.
British wine has a long history but reached its peak before the 1980s when supermarkets weren't able to import enough great-tasting cheap wines to satisfy home demand. And although in theory these wines ought to taste as fresh and fruity as their home-grown counterparts, often they don't and have a tinned fruit flavour.
But British wine now has some competition.
In the supermarket wine aisles there are increasing numbers of imported wines selling at around £4 a bottle that taste fresh with simple single fruit flavours that are quaffable if forgettable.
Then there are the premium wine kits, like Canadian WinExpert and the latest Australian Blends made by British Hambleton Bard, selling between £40-£55 that allow 30 bottles of single grape variety wines to be made at home from imported grape juice. With the final product coming at under £2 a bottle then these high-end kits are a real alternative to British wine selling at twice the price.
With recognisable flavours and a complexity lacking in British wines, the more expensive wine kits offer great flavours on the cheap but they do come with the requirement of time. If you’re not prepared to spend time making them, like you would with homemade bread, jam or beer, then this route isn’t for you. But if you consider home brewing a pleasurable pass-time, which many do even now after its zenith in the back-to-basics boom in the 1970s, then they are worth considering.
Why not give them a go?
Here are some premium wine kits worth fermenting.
WinExpert Classic 30 bottle Italian Pinot Grigio (£54.95 KegThat.com)
Kit contains 8-litres of concentrated Pinot Grigio grape juice which ferments into 30 bottles in 4 weeks. You’ll need a large fermentation bucket to ferment the juice and some wine bottles to put it in but unlike cheaper wine kits you won’t need to add granulated sugar to boost it up. Final flavours of apple, lemon and lime at £1.83 a bottle.
Australian Blend Shiraz 30 bottle (£38.59 KegThat.com)
This grape juice inside the kit weighs in at a huge 7kg and is ferments into 30 bottles of Australian-style Shiraz in just 7 days. The grape juice concentrate itself is made from European grapes and makes a rich red wine with a spiciness and tannins. Comes in at about £1.29 a bottle.
On The House Blush 30 bottles (£44.99 KegThat.com)
Turn 6-litres of grape juice into 30 bottles of rosé. Ready in 4 weeks. Makes a semi-sweet Californian White Zinfandel type rosé. Comes in at £1.50 a bottle.
Related articles
Wine kits: Do I need any equipment?
