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Title The Winelands of Britain: past, present & prospective.
Abstract Wine has been drunk in Britain since the late Iron Age, but has only been made in this country since the Roman occupation when wine production was locally an agri-business. Viticulture declined in the cooler climate of the Dark Ages but renewed as temperatures rose in late Saxon and Mediaeval times. It again declined during the Little Ice Age of the late 16C – early 19C. However, gentry returning from the Grand Tour modelled their gardens on those of sunnier climes with grottoes, belvederes, miradors, hermitages, faux ruins, water features and vineyards. The Industrial Revolution warm phase of the late 19C – 21C has led to an accelerating renaissance of viticulture.
Dick Selley’s research has shown how for two millennia the northern limit of viticulture has moved north or south across the country with changing temperature. Vines flourish best in well-drained sunny south-facing slopes on a variety of rock types. Chalk is a favoured rock for viticulture because of its curious pore structure. French vignerons are now buying chalk downland in SE England as, in common with much of Euroland, the Champagne area is becoming too warm to make champagne. On the positive side however, the future of Scottish viticulture is rosé.
Our Speaker Richard (Dick) Selley is Emeritus Professor of Petroleum Geology and a Senior Research Fellow at Imperial College, London, where he has spent most of his career apart from 5 gap years exploring for petroleum in Libya, Greenland and the North Sea. While travelling the globe, he found time to study the geology of vineyards with all the collateral conviviality that such demanding research necessarily entails. Forty years ago, Sir Adrian White bought Lord Ashcombe’s Denbies estate near Dorking. Richard suggested that Sir Adrian turn the chalk slopes of the North Downs into a vineyard noting the petrophysical properties of chalk, the south-facing aspect, and the anticipated effects of global warming. It was, at the time, the largest vineyard in the UK, and even in Europe. UK vineyard owners were at that time unaware of the importance of geology and global warming on viticulture. Denbies is now a paradigm for modern UK vineyards.
Location Storey’s Field Centre, Eddington Avenue, Cambridge CB3 1AA. Free parking in Madingley Park & Ride, Madingley Road CB3 0EX. The link maps access to the Centre via a pedestrian exit from the car park followed by a few minutes’ walk.
This live talk is open to CGT members (£12) and guests (£15). Entries include tasting of up to three selected British wines, together with nibbles. Please pay by BACS to our new account in the name of Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust (sort code 30-99-50, account number 80635768 using your name as reference), or by cheque, payable to Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust, to Jane Sills, The Willows, Ramsey Road, Ramsey Forty Foot PE26 2XN. Please book and email admin by 8 December for catering purposes.
Cambridgeshire Gardens Trust 