UNCORKING OXFORD

Oxfordshire Uncorked: A Guide to the vineyards and wines of Oxfordshire and North Cotswolds (Meze, 2024)

Even the several tens of thousands of Oxford alumni who live in a near radius of Oxford might shake their heads and mutter, 'I just didn't realise it had grown so big so quickly….'

We are referring to wine production, or to be a bit more precise, the cultivation of vineyards and grapes, with the wines often made off-site.

Marcus Rees (Jesus, 1990), with a super career behind him in retailing, operates partly as a tour guide in the city and partly as an author specialising in wine.

His book Oxfordshire Uncorked is just out (August 2024) and is a straightforward guide covering fifteen vineyards, a handful technically just outside Oxfordshire. It aims to be comprehensive and even the four non-participating vineyards are listed in the 'Vineyards to Watch' segment at the end.

Marcus reminds me that farming TV personality Jeremy Clarkson, as well as putting extra oomph into the Oxfordshire 'land ownership scene' has recently bought the pub called The Windmill, near Burford in the Cotswolds west of Oxford.

So the conversation begins in earnest when I ask what sort of wines the pub might serve, if Marcus was chief sommelier.

He says that so far Clarkson is retailing wines from four English vineyards in Kent, Surrey, Stourbridge and Gloucestershire. 'But he could do better, more locally…'

Marcus suggests Barbara Laithwaite's Wyefold, near Henley, she being of the well known wine-retailing family and a great story.

Next, he suggests Fairmile, which produces super sparkling wines and is also close to Henley-on-Thames.

Then, he turns to the winery he estimates to be closest to Clarkson at Minster Lovell, which also happens to be called Freedom of the Press. 'Jancis Robinson (St Anne's, 1968) just wrote a rave review…the wines are very, very good…'

We twist Marcus' arm for more recommendations below. But first the context. He says that grape cultivation is a rapidly growing form of agriculture in UK with land under vines up 74% in the last five years alone as farmers seek to improve on returns made from traditional crops.

This is not separate from climate change. He adds that some climatologists have suggested that by the end of this century hot climate grapes like malbec will be doing well in places like Essex and the Thames Valley, while Pinot Noir will be well established in Northumberland.

Some of the explosive growth in sparkling wines aping champagne, currently going on across Southern England - Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, might be finding it too hot, while Champagne the region might be crippled.

This is a catastrophe mixed up with a small British success story, to a degree. There is uncertainty.

But the speculation is rooted in a reality already here. Last year, 2023, saw global wine production fall 9.6%, while the UK harvest shot up to 22 million bottles, compared to a previous best of 13 million in 2018, these figures from the International Organisation of Vine and Wine (OIV).

We need to keep our hats on. The French wine-producing region of Bordeaux alone produces 700 million bottles of wine a year.

But the UK is no longer hobbyists. Marcus reminds us that several UK estate agents now have a 'Head of Viticulture' or 'Head of Vineyard' role, and that several French, Spanish and even Californian, well-established sparkling wine makers have already bought British vineyards partly to mitigate climate risk already affecting their existing operations.

Oxfordshire is part of a national story that now sports over 1,000 vineyards, many of them tiny, with 87 new ones registering in 2023 alone, Marcus reports.

The Oxfordshire contribution is partly the southern slope of the Chiltern Hills where chalk predominates - hence the several vineyards covered by Marcus situated near Henley.

But there are other locations, he says, where the crucial, favourable agronomy boils down to well-drained soil, the right aspect and slope and altitude. Throw in passionate wine makers, wealthy retirees, an army of willing volunteers to help with the harvest and increasingly very professional, serious viticulturists, often with European pedigree or training, and it's enough to demand a book length treatment.

So amidst the plethora of unfamiliar grape varietals, a British reputation for steep pricing and stacks of died-in-the-wool Oxford college prejudice towards France and claret especially, does this local narrative really stack up?

Marcus explains that the significant growth over the last 40 years in sunshine hours as well as temperatures, along with increased know-how in pruning vines and canopies, directly affects the sugar levels and ripeness of the grapes.

He says that Britain's largest wine producer Chapel Down, Kent, is a listed company producing over 1 million bottles a year, and that Gusbourne, Nyetimber and Hambledon are all starting to become names that people recognise.

Oxfordshire is nowhere near that sort of scale but the specific quality and ambition is absolutely there, he says.

For value and quality he cites the red wines made by Bob and Carol Nielson at Brightwell, describing them as 'an eye-opener' and serious enough to improve with age, and still available at or around £15.

Sparkling wine is the main course here, because the soils are right and champagne sets a more generous pricing context.

'Yes, the best are as good as good champagne and the awards are there to prove it.'

'I drank a Fairmile Blanc de Blancs worth £40 at Christmas and it was utterly delicious.'

Fairmile's vineyard has a special location that ticks every box, apparently, and is run by owners Jan and Anthea Mirkowski.

Then he moves to JoJo's Vineyard, owned and cultivated by Ian and Tess Beecher-Jones in the Chiltern Hills.

We should be clear that Ian is also Chair of the Thames and Chilterns Vineyards Association, and his first sparkling wines are still in bottle, for launch in 2025.

But Marcus cites some JoJo white wines he has already tried and he says that there is wide anticipation for the sparkling.

It is this atmosphere of everything being new and positive and rapidly changing, that is so striking, particularly when traditional farming is subject to so many difficulties.

Wine making is no easy path and profitability is elusive, but Marcus says it's the fastest growing new agriculture in Britain, and to the degree that it is done carefully it can also be nature-friendly in ways that intensive cereal crops are not.

Oxfordshire Uncorked consists of proper visitor information for each property and most now welcome visitors and host tastings. Photos are offered of each wine, with full explanation of the styles and grapes. There is a Directory. The only thing we would have welcomed was a detailed map.

Marcus says that his next wine book could be about Gloucestershire where there is a well-established but too-little known wine scene. Perhaps one day he will edit a national directory stretching from the Isle of Wight to the Scottish borders - with a nod to the Romans who got here first.