penguinoid
Posts: 1038
Joined: 1/10/2013 From: Australia via the UK, now in Bozen-Bolzano, Italy Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Echinosum The cellar is for the purpose of state functions, especially entertainment of foreign delegations, etc. The idea is that they buy the wine young when it is cheaper, age it, and it costs less that way, at least for wine of quality. This would include banquets at Buckingham Palace, when those are official state events rather than the private events of the Royal Family. The King has his own cellar for the latter. Unfortunately, I think it's an easy target for political commentators to criticise the government on. It's easy to portray them as out of touch if they're spending money on wine, especially during hard economic times. The same people would probably criticise the government if they did not have decent wines to serve visiting officials during state functions . In the absence of estates donating wine, I am not sure exactly what else the government should do quote:
ORIGINAL: Echinosum I think there has been a conscious decision of the government to serve more English wine. I believe it does now routinely serve English sparkling wine rather than Champagne, and if you choose well it is quite good enough for that. In theory we should now be about warm enough to grow what they were growing in the Loire 40 or 50 years ago, though i confess I am yet to see anything like those wines from English vineyards. But with summer temperatures in London being about 3.5C lower than Lyon or Bordeaux, it will take quite a bit more global warming before England can grow anything that could really adequately substitute for claret and Burgundy. But people have recently been looking at soil structures to try and find good terroir for the time that it is warm enough to grow red wine in England. Parts of south Essex, to the E of London and N of the Thames estuary, not currently much of a growing area, seems to look good for pinot noir. It is also a particularly mild area of the country, because of the influence of the estuary. There is a particularly strong tradition of drinking claret in England, because Bordeaux used to be an English possession. It came in 1137 when Henry II married Eleanor of Aquitaine, who in her own right controlled much of SW France. Though by the end of the 100 years war, English possessions in France were reduced to Calais. England is increasingly making serious still white wines too, and those could complement imported wines at state functions. I've read that there are now some decent red Pinot noirs being produced -- but I've not had a chance to even visit the UK in recent years, so can't try them myself. I suspect English still wines will become increasingly good over the next few years, but I can't see them replacing Bordeaux or Burgundy any time soon either.
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