wine making supplies

Many people think of the United Kingdom as a beer producing country. However British wine isn't an oxymoron and it is produced in small quantities in the south of England. There are also a handful of small vineyards in South Wales. The English and Welsh wine industry has been helped by the warmer British summers over recent years and it is speculated that global warming may encourage major growth in the future. As of 2006 there are around 400 vineyards in total, but most of them are very small, with a combined area of around 2,000 acres according to english-wine. com. Wine Making Supplies. British wine supplies about 1% of domestic demand. [1]

History

The Romans introduce wine making to the United Kingdom, by trying to grow grapes as far north as Lincolnshire, however the British climate was simply too cold and too wet to grow grapes for making wine. Wine making continued as far as the Normans with over 40 vineyards in England as mentioned in the Doomsday Book.

From the Middle Ages, the British market was the main customer of sweet wines like sherry, port wine, and Madeira wine from France, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany.

In the 20th century

Growing grapes was started again, in the 1970s onwards, helped by the global warming, making many parts of Sussex, Kent, Essex, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, dry and hot enough to grow grapes of high quality.