The English wine industry is up in arms about comments made by the Prince of Wales's private secretary.
Referring to the biofuel distilled from wine used to power the Prince's Aston Martin DB6, Sir Michael Peat said, 'I think our wine is surplus English wine.'
But English wine producers are furious that the royal family should suggest there is a surplus of English wine.
'The story is rubbish' consultant Stephen Skelton MW said. 'There is no surplus of English wine and we don't belong to the European distillation regime.'
Replying to bulletin board jibes that English wine 'must taste like petrol', Skelton said, 'We are as good as anywhere else in the world'.
The English wine industry, he said, has come a long way in the past 30 to 40 years, winning a huge array of awards and trophies. In results from the most recent competition where over 200 wines were entered only 30 failed to receive official recognition.
'English producers spend great time and money investing into production methods, pushing our sparkling wines into an altogether different league.'
He added, 'I can guarantee that nobody has sold wine for distillation.'
Prince Charles's office at Clarence House yesterday sent out a retraction: 'the wine used was a waste product which was unfit for human consumption as it had been in storage for too long.'
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Prince Charles, who has long been ahead of President George W Bush on environmentalism, can only be envied for foresight by Barack Obama, the Democrats' presidential candidate. But as rising gasoline prices are playing havoc in America, Bush is ahead of Charles on fuel savings. Bush's White House limousine, like his administration, has been running on empty for eight years. Howard G Goldberg, New York City
Whilst Mr Goldberg's knowledge of wine is not doubt excellent, I think his political views should be kept out of a publication such as Decanter.
Fergus Stewart
Would the English wine industry kindly scrape themselves off the ceiling and come back down to earth!
My husband and I are growers in the Loire Valley. We are "taxed" every year in the form of wine for the European distillation regime. It is obligatory and based on a percentage of the harvest and grape variety. The EU are now saying that member countries have less and less demand for this distillation, which is used for industrial alcohol, and want to reduce it as far as possible. They also want to cancel the surplus wine distillation (this is separate from the annual distillation "tax"). In fact, reading between the lines the EU would like to cancel the whole European wine industry!
There is always wastage in wine-making. It is not possible to make wine without waste. After all, it is a totally natural product. It is also not possible that every ounce of wine is perfect. We need to be able to offload this waste for use in a necessary industry for by-products.
Prince Charles, the Royal family and staff are to be commended that they have found such a natural replacement for petrol. I look forward to this type of advanced thinking in France. I doubt it will happen. It is time that people took this type of forethought seriously!
(As a sideline, if it wasn't for Prince Charles, the French cheese industry would no longer exist as we know it today. I am forever grateful that he made those wonderful comments all those years ago and saved French cheeses. The French are, too!)
Amanda's Wines, Domaine du Prieuré, Valaire, France
"The story is rubbish" Quite so.
Dan Friedman, NYC Wine Report, New York, USA
How fitting this should apppear on America's Independence Day. Reminds us why we fought so hard to rid ourselves of the British Royal Family.
LF, Philadelphia, USA
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Prince Charles, who has long been ahead of President George W Bush on environmentalism, can only be envied for foresight by Barack Obama, the Democrats' presidential candidate. But as rising gasoline prices are playing havoc in America, Bush is ahead of Charles on fuel savings. Bush's White House limousine, like his administration, has been running on empty for eight years. Howard G Goldberg, New York City
