Vines in a Cold Climate: The People Behind the English Wine Revolution

JAMES BEARD AWARD 2024 WINNER New York Times: The Best Wine Books of 2023 The definitive story of the extraordinary and surprising success of English wine - and the people who transformed its reputation on the global stage from that of a joke to world-class in 30 years. From an amateur affair made by retirees to a multi-million-pound industry with quality to rival Champagne, the rise of English wine has been one of the more unexpected wine stories of the past 30 years. In this illuminating and accessible account, award-winning drinks writer Henry Jeffreys takes you behind the scenes of the English wine revolution. It’s a story about changing climate and technology but most of all it’s about men and women with vision, determination and more than a little bloody-mindedness. From secretive billionaires to the single mother farming a couple of hectares in Kent, these are the people making wine in a cold climate.

Henry Jeffreys studied English and Classical Literature at Leeds University. He worked in the wine trade and publishing before becoming a freelance writer and broadcaster. He was a judge for the BBC Radio 4’s Food & Farming Awards and for the Fortnum & Mason food and drink awards 2018. He is the author of Fortnum & Mason award-winning Empire of Booze: British History through the Bottom of a Glass (2017), The Home Bar (2018) and The Cocktail Dictionary (2020), and in 2022 was awarded Fortnum & Mason drink writer of the year. He is currently features editor for the Master of Malt drinks blog.