Stephen Skelton – författare

Great Britain is a premium wine-producing region, with around 650 vineyards in England and Wales covering some 2,750 hectares and producing sparkling and still wines. English and Welsh wines have won many prestigious awards recently and Stephen Skelton is the leading authority on the wines of the UK.The Wines of Great Britain is a comprehensive survey of the history of UK wines, as well as of the current state of the wine industry and its future prospects. After a short introduction showing where UK wine is in 2019 and where it might go in the future Skelton considers the history of winemaking in the UK from King Alfred in the fifth century, through the medieval period to recent developments in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The Wines of Great Britain then takes us on a tour of contemporary viticulture and winemaking, examining trends in plantings and vineyard layout, varieties, rootstocks and clones, vineyard sizes, modern wineries and styles of wine. Skelton considers regional identities as well as the branding of UK sparkling wines and their market position.A substantial part of this important book is the 21 detailed biographies of the most important, exciting and innovative producers and the wines they create. Wine businesses profiled in detail include Breaky Bottom, Chapel Down, Nyetimber, Oxney Organic Estate, Sixteen Ridges Vineyard and Yorkshire Heart Vineyard. Shorter entries on other significant or up and coming producers also feature.

Wine Growing in Great Britain is an A to Z of growing grapes for wine production in the British Isles and other cool climate regions. For anyone contemplating planting and establishing a vineyard and for those already growing vines on a small scale who perhaps wish to expand their vineyards and improve their winegrowing skills, it will be an invaluable guide. It will also be of interest to students of viticulture and wine studies. The book covers not only the viticultural tasks involved in setting up, establishing and managing a vineyard, but also, uniquely, covers the financial aspects of cool climate wine growing: the costs of land, vineyard establishment and management, and the income from both grape and wine sales. The second edition, published in 2020, has been expanded and updated contains much unique data on yields and the performance of vineyards in Britain's different regions. Chapter 1 is a brief introduction to winegrowing in Great Britain, looking at the changes that have taken place over the last sixty years. Chapter 2 starts with the financial viability of a winegrowing enterprise, giving the likely costs of: buying suitable land, establishing a vineyard, managing that vineyard and the costs of making both still and sparkling wines. It then covers the possible income from the vineyard, covering the value of the grapes and the likely income from wine sales. Chapter 3 looks at the question of site selection, giving guidance on where the best places to plant a vineyard are and the reasons why site selection is the most important decision in the whole process. Chapter 4 covers the all-important aspect of varietal choice with full descriptions of thirty varieties - all those currently being grown in Great Britain in excess of 1.50-ha - together with a section on new vine varieties, clones of Chardonnay, Pinot noir and Meunier for sparkling wine and rootstocks suitable for Great Britain. Chapters 5-10 cover pruning and trellising systems, the planning and preparation of the site, vineyard nutrition, planting techniques, trellising systems, and the machinery and equipment required to manage a vineyard successfully. Chapters 11-16 cover the management of the vineyard from planting through to full cropping, frost protection, weed control, protected vinegrowing, and pest and disease control. Chapter 17 is devoted to the important topic of Trunk Diseases and Chapter 18 to Organic and biodynamic viticulture. Finally, Chapter 19 is on 'Getting started'. There then follow eight appendices: - Useful addresses - Vineyard pre-planting check list - Vineyard running costs - Vineyard machinery costs - The Agricultural Flat Rate Scheme - The story of Wrotham Pinot - The complete history of sparkling wine production in Great Britain - so far - Jack Ward, Horam Manor and the Merrydown Wine Company

It is 1615. Shakespeare is still alive and the country is at peace. James 1 of England (James VI of Scotland) has been on the throne since the childless Elisabeth I died in 1603. He claimed the throne by virtue of the fact that he was direct in line of descent from Henry VII, his great-grandfather. The English Navy, which had been founded as a standing force by Henry VIII and had defended the country from several Spanish Armadas during the Elisabethan era, had been neglected. It needed rebuilding and this meant new ships and plenty of stout English (and Welsh) oak. Luckily for James, one of his closest advisors was an admiral, Sir Robert Mansell, who having given up his naval career and become an industrialist and entrepreneur (as well as a Member of Parliament), saw an opportunity to secure his new-found business of coal mining and glass-making. Mansell applied to the King to grant him a patent forbidding the use of timber for smelting (mainly iron and glass) and on 23 May 1615 the papers were signed. Thus, with the stroke of his quill, the king started the industrial revolution that turned the British Isles from an agrarian economy, based upon wool, water power and wind power, to one where coal and steam brought about unimaginable developments in trade and industry. It was following the signing of the 1615 patent that glassmaking in Britain went from a peripatetic, nomadic business which chased the fuel from clearing to clearing in the dwindling forests, to one where the fuel travelled to the kilns. By virtue of the fact that kilns didn't have to move as the wood ran out, they could be bigger and better, brick-built with chimneys and flues, which made the glass stronger and more durable. It was into this exciting, changing world of glassmaking that Sir Kenelm Digby developed his strong verre Anglais bottles which enabled the production of (lightly) sparkling bottle-fermented ciders and wines.The Knight who invented Champagne is the story of King James I, Admiral Sir Robert Mansell and Sir Kenelm Digby and the part they played between 1615 and 1630 in revolutionising the production of glass. The changes they helped bring about led to the development and production of stronger glass that could be used for making bottles that would withstand the pressure caused by a secondary-fermentation in the bottle. By 1662 we know that it was common practice by cidermakers, vintners and coopers to add raisins and sugar to wine and cider at bottling to start a secondary fermentation in the bottle. All of this happened several years before Dom Perignon, often credited with 'inventing Champagne', took up his position as cellarer at the Abbaye Saint-Pierre d'Hautvillers.