Last July I went to the House of Lords to taste the gold and silver medal winners in this year's English & Welsh Wine of the Year Competition. This should in theory be the crème de la crème of Britain's expanding vineyards, not least because more than half of them were made in the exceptionally hot summer of 2003 which resolved the big problem of English viticulture: under-ripeness. In fact, several articles have suggested that the vignerons of England and Wales will be major beneficiaries of global warming (while Brindisi becomes too hot for vines, Birmingham will come into its...