This is a British wine. Which is not to be confused with an English wine which is made with grapes grown in England. British wine is peculiar hangover from the days before the UK got into making commercial wine in the 1980s and so wine made with imported grape juice and fermented in Britain was drunk as a substitute. Its popularity has returned because it is cheap. Being made in Britain means that there are no import taxes as there are on fully fermented wine that contains alcohol as only the grape juice is imported. This is why this Willow and Stone white is selling for £4. Which sounds a bargain until you realise British wine often has a particular tang to the flavour – freshness is replaced with a tinned fruity flavour. This can be appealing when, like in this instance, that tinned flavour is peach. The result is what used to be called a social wine in home winemaking circles, where making wine with imported grape juice bought in tins from the winemaking section in Boots was all the rage. In this instance you get what you pay for.
