Vino, Ale and Cider can work together!

The Charlbury Beer Festival last weekend once again proved the point that there is a place for good wines alongside some fine ales and ciders. We featured our largest selection ever including four English wines from Brightwell – keeping it local -, Chapel Down, Denbies and Bolney Estate, convincing me more than ever that the vino-interested public is increasingly positive, supportive and receptive to the styles of the domestic wines produced. It is much easier now to get someone to purchase an English wine versus the competition available from more fashionable wine producing countries.When it comes to rosé, simply offering one pink is not enough anymore, when there are there so many good dry styles on offer and people are choosing this as their regular consumption colour ahead of white or red. Yes there were four rosés available, with the dry, complex and sophisticated Château d’ Anglès from La Clape, the easy drinking Paternina rosado from Rioja – still bang on the money as a region producing well-priced pink – the popular, fruity Pink Elephant from Portugal and finally one of the best still, balanced English rosés from Chapel Down. The were two good reds including the delicious and classy Diemersfontein Shiraz 2003, which is probably at its peak now and the accessible medium bodied blend of Alfrocheiro, Syrah and Touriga Nacional from Quinta da Lagoalva Reserva 2008, in Tejo, Portugal available from Casa Leal.