England conjures many images, wine is not one of them but nowadays with more and more famous Anglophone wine experts buying land in the UK in the hope of making the next best thing to Champagne, my quest on a recent trip to the UK was to find a good British wine to startle my rather cynical Italian wine-loving friends.

England is known for gardens not vineyards

So early one morning I headed across the hills and over to  Barrica wines www.barricawines.co.uk winner of the 2010 Independent Wine retailer of the year, run by a true northern lass, Jane Cuthbertson. After a quick introduction from a mutual friend, Jane took me for a coffee and an hour later I’d had the full story how her hobby of self-brew beer turned into a love for wine followed by her to organizing wine appreciation courses, a wine and spirits department at a local supermarket and eventually the opening of her own wine shop. With a firm belief that every customer is king and a clear passion for her work, she’s now toiling 7 days a week to bring the snobbery out of wine and to offer her faithful customers interesting wines from every corner of the globe.

Jane’s  60 sqm shop (space is an issue as she told me at least 4 times!) is part of the Huntley Gate Farm shop in Samlesbury, which can only be described as a paradise for gastronomes. Henley’s farm shop is a complex built around a converted old farm buildings and now houses up-market clothes, imported teak furniture, a coffee shop and a variety of food areas – butchers, fishmongers, cheese-mongers, a 3^rd generation bakers and her wine shop. As we are more and more supermarket dependent, it’s a nice touch to see such artisan products available – and the amount of people who are more than happy to shell out a bit more on something different. The wine shop holds over 700 labels ranging from 5 to 300 pounds and all products are selected on the criteria that 1) Jane has tasted them 2) they’re great value for money, whatever the price bracket 3) they are not available in supermarkets and large retailers. So let’s say, everything is something special.  Jane stocks interesting varietals, sought after producers, a good range of out of the ordinary wines as well as 100 special beers. Wanting to grab something new – and on a quest to find a British wine that would not disappoint – Jane pointed out her favorites (and also convinced me to pick up a red from Lebanon which wasn’t on my list – great saleswoman!).

The UK wine was a Ortega produced by Biddenden www.biddendenvineyards.com , the oldest winery in Kent. I was rather skeptical expecting something herbaceous, acidic and probably unbalanced but the wine was bursting with fresh fruit – peaches, apricots and strawberries with great freshness and not too dry.

So there it was, my day’s mission was complete. In one day I’d managed to find a dearth of amazing wines outside of the usual supermarket selection and had been convinced that the UK can make excellent wines (I know that recently a Nyetimber sparking won an international award!) which would beat many an old world wine. My only disappointment of the day was that I don’t have the space to take a crate back with me and show my Italian friends that they’d better get worried – even we know how to make good wine!