English wines rated blind against the competition

In the company of the head sommeliers from two of Gordon Ramsay’s London restaurants, La Noisette and Maze, I blind tasted four sets of wines – sparkling, rosé, white and red – four wines in each set. The idea was to see if the English wines were obvious.

I found the English sparkling and rosé wines reasonably difficult to spot; the red and white wines easier to identify. I think this was mainly due to the grape varieties suited to the UK climate. This was what made the two English wines stand out, not so much the quality of winemaking or...