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UK wines panned by European PMs

Published:  23 July, 2008

Welsh wine estate Parva Farm Vineyard has hit back at two European prime ministers who were unimpressed with the English and Welsh wines served at an EU summit in Brussels.
Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi sent two cases of wine to his Swedish counterpart Goran Persson, who, the Italian PM claimed, was so aghast at the wines at the summit that I promised to send him some of our wines'.

UK wines were served at EU functions between July and December 2005, when it took over the presidency for a six-month period. Austria has now taken up the mantle.

But Judith Dudley, owner of Parva Farm, told Harpers that Berlusconi's actions were a silly thing to do' and claimed that Mr Persson had not even tried their wine. She said: People's tastes are different. Italian wines are so different from English and Welsh wines, and personally, I'm not a fan of Italian wine - it's not the style of wine that I like.'

The Parva Farm wines are actually made by Three Choirs Vineyard in Gloucestershire, with the Dudleys supplying the grapes. Parva has 1 hectare and makes around half a dozen different wines a year, with a total output of 4,000 bottles.

Julia Trustram Eve of English Wine Producers, who said she was obviously disappointed' with the news, added: I hope that the English and Welsh wine industries aren't dismissed on the strength of one person.'

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