Five minutes with Matt Hodgson, Grape Britannia

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 06 December, 2021

Matt Hodgson, founder of English wine specialist Grape Britannia, says the time has arrived to look beyond fizz to the UK’s homegrown still gems.

I think that the quality/value proposition for English still wines is in a massively different place to where it was just a handful of years ago. And now we’re finding a really interesting mix of great quality, reasonable value Pinots and Chardonnays that are giving other cool-climate [rivals] a good run for their money.

Interestingly enough, though, from the increasing number of trade clients we have now picked up, there’s real and growing interest in the somewhat discredited Germanic varieties. Maybe it’s just the young somms, who don’t have any of the memories of bad old English still wine – but they are very open-minded about trying these wines. And many of them make really good food wines.

These wines are being listed by restaurants that are typically interested in local provenance and sourcing fresh, seasonal British food, so why wouldn’t they look for that in their wine list as well?

So we’re supplying people like Simon Rogan, restaurants that are modern British cuisine, those that perhaps grow some of their own ingredients, certainly those with a focus on local sourcing.

And now we are seeing enquiries from others that are starting to appreciate that there are good English sill wines out there, and their customers are asking about them too. It’s really exciting.

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