Last week Ken Jones wrote a letter about English wine. In actual fact, there were two periods when wine was produced successfully by England and Scotland.

The period that Ken refers to was known as the Roman Warm Period (about 2500 years ago). That was preceded by the Minoan Warm Period (about 3100 years ago). In both those periods, human civilisation flourished.

The next warm period was the Medieval Warm Period (aka the Medieval Optimum – about 700 to 1300 AD [give or take]). During this time there was a Mediterranean climate in England and Scotland. English and Scottish wines were of such high quality – and in such high demand by the French - that French vintners petitioned their provincial governors to have any wine from Scotland or England banned. These petitions are still in French archives to this day.

Cheers,

Tony Wahren, Ohauiti Rd