6 of the best English wine buys from Waitrose’s 25% off deal

I much prefer a 25% across the board discount to offers on individual wines as you can get a good reduction on the bottles you most enjoy. Waitrose does them two or three times a year and the current offer which applies off any six bottles over £5 lasts until next Tuesday, March 9th.*

Previously I've focussed on under £10 wines (see below) but I thought I’d concentrate on English wine this time as Waitrose, particularly Waitrose Cellar, has a really good selection (97 different lines, it turns out, many of which I haven’t heard of! I assume they’re stocked by local stores too.)

* Note: if shopping on Waitrose.com, the delivery date needs to be on or before the 9th March. If shopping on Waitrosecellar.com, the order needs to be placed before the offer expires on 9th March. The offer is not available in branches in Scotland, Wales or Jersey, motorway service stations, Welcome Break, petrol stations or via Deliveroo.

Lyme Bay Shoreline 2018, Devon. Waitrose Cellar only £11.24 down from £14.99

Classic light, summery, elderflowery English white that you’ll enjoy if you like sauvignon blanc. Lovely with smoked salmon.

Simpsons Estate Chardonnay 2018 Waitrose and Waitrose Cellar £11.24 down from 14.99

England is producing some impressive chardonnays these days but they don't normally come at a price as good as this. Drink with a fish pie or grilled plaice

Simpsons pinot noir rosé available at the same price but from Waitrose Cellar only is very pretty too.

Squerreys Vintage Reserve Brut 2016 Waitrose Cellar £24 down from £32

I know this is almost in champagne territory pricewise but it’s similar to champagne in quality too. A really terrific bottle of fizz

Digby Leander Pink £22.50 down from £30 Waitrose and Waitrose Cellar

I’m not sure I would pay 30 quid for this undeniably attractive sparkling rosé but it’s good value at £22. And would be perfect, unless your mum is averse to all things pink, for Mother’s Day.

Nyetimber Classic Cuvée in half bottles, Waitrose and Waitrose Cellar £14.99 down from £19.99

I confess I love a half bottle even though they come at a premium. Sometimes you don’t want more. One of the first English sparkling wines to hit the headlines and still stands up to the competition.

Bolney Estate Pinot Noir 2019 Waitrose Cellar £13.49 down from £17.99

I haven’t tried the 2019 vintage but I’ve always liked this suprisingly rich, full-bodied pinot from Bolney Estate which you could drink with duck or lamb.

Here are some other recommendations from the last Waitrose round-up I did back in November. The Corbières and the oloroso are no longer available.

I’d also buy the Crozes Hermitage from this selection which was being offered at £10 in the run-up to Christmas. It’s still good value at £11.99

All Angels Classic Cuvée and sparkling rosé

There’s so much English fizz around now it takes something special to make them stand out. These two All Angels wines, have the advantage, for a start, of coming from Berkshire, a county which is not as well known for its wines as more southerly counties such as Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.

They’re also really good. I tasted the Classic Cuvée 2014 first which was appealingly smooth and creamy with a nice touch of citrusy freshness and didn’t expect to like the sparkling rosé, also from the 2014 vintage as much, given how incredibly fruity it was - just jam-packed full of strawberry, raspberry and redcurrant summer pudding flavours. Maybe it’s more a wine to enjoy with a picnic tea than as an aperitif but it’s absolutely delicious. And surprisingly a shade drier than the classic cuvée.

That is made from chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier and pinot gris and the rosé, largely from rondo along with pinot noir and pinot gris. Both are from the 2014 vintage and made by Emma Rice, the award-winning winemaker at Hattingley Valley.

All Angels, if you’re wondering, is named after the estate's local parish church, St Michael and All Angels at Enborne which apparently dates from at least the 12th century.

At £28.50 from the winery’s online shop they’re also relatively reasonably priced compared to many English sparkling wines now (quite a few prices are creeping up over the £40 mark). You can buy one of each for £57 with free delivery this week as it's English Wine Week and also from winebuyers.com.

English Wine Week has been postponed this year from May possibly in the hope we all might be able to visit vineyards by now. However there are lots of online tastings and webinars in which you can take part. Let’s hope we can actually get into the vineyards before too long.

Morrisons The Best English Sparkling Brut

This week’s wine of the week is a bit of a mystery. It’s an exceptionally good English sparkling wine which Morrisons has bottled under its own label for the very reasonable sum of £20. (There’s also a brilliant 2010 vintage for £25)

Who is it made by, though? The back label says Rolling Green Hills Ltd which unusually has no presence online or on social media apart from this company profile on a website called Endole which lists one Dutch director and an unspecified shareholder. Rumour has it that it’s under the same ownership as Nyetimber which would account for the quality. They’re certainly being very coy about it if it is.

Although it’s only been aged for 2 years it’s appetisingly rich and toasty and, along with the vintage bottling has picked up a silver medal in his year's Decanter World Wine Awards.

They recommend you drink it with Dover sole meunière with which it would undoubtedly be delicious but which I suspect few households rustle up on a Friday night. Roast chicken is the other suggestion - a good one - as would be fishcakes or fish and chips.

The only downside - and this may strike you as a plus or a drawback depending on your political standpoint is the somewhat jingoistic label. A Union Jack imposed on another Union Jack. It’s a thing, seemingly. The new Mini’s rear lights are also designed to look like the British flag. But if you like good bubbly and don’t want to spend an arm and a leg on it it’s an excellent buy.

Wine of the week: Louis Pommery England Brut

The standard of English sparkling wine is already high but I can’t remember being as impressed by a homegrown sparkling wine for a while as I am by this bottle. Of course you could argue that it’s not really English at all as it’s made by the team at Vranken Pommery in collaboration with Hattingley Valley in Hampshire.

Pommery is the first champagne house to release an English wine. They have already planted a vineyard in Hampshire but it won’t be productive until 2024 so they have had to source the grapes for this cuvée from vineyards in Hampshire, Essex and Sussex.

It has an elegance depth and finesse that some English sparkling wines lack with a lovely fine stream of bubbles. I’d be amazed if most people could tell it from champagne which is just as well as it’s in the champagne price bracket (£40 normally). However it’s on offer currently at Ocado at £26.66, and at Lea & Sandeman for £34.95 a bottle.

The only thing it lacks is a more stylish label but at least they’re not using the ghastly WineGB logo. It’s made in England so that’s what it says on the label.

Lovely as an aperitif or with some elegant seafood like langoustine ravioli. And a lovely wine to serve at a wedding.