The cooler climes of Northern Europe mean winemaking on the edge, yet when it goes right the results are delicious, with more complexity and intensity as growers wait as late as possible before harvest to get the ripest possible grapes. These are exciting times to look at the support players, including a resurgent Austria.

Moreover, the sweet wines of Tokaji in Hungary are difficult to better, and they live forever or so it seems. England and Wales chip in with some characterful, interesting whites, none more so than from Wroxeter, our near neighbour in Shropshire.

Austrian wine is in the ascendancy. From the rolling landscapes of the Weinviertal, near Vienna, to mountainous Styria in the South, there are fascinating wines in every style. Grüner Veltliner is the white grape of the moment and deserves a good future in Britain: Pfaffl and Domäne Wachau make lovely, fruit-filled examples. The rugged hillsides of the Kamptal are home to the resurgent Schloss Gobelsburg, Willi Bründlmayer and Jurtschitsch. In the Wachau two very famous growers, Knoll and FX Pichler, produce superstar, steely Rieslings from the Danube’s cliff-hugging slopes. In hilly Styria you’ll find vineyards sprawled across plunging valleys, and racy whites from Polz. Neusiedlersee-Hügelland sits to the south-east of Vienna where excellent red wines are made by Esterházy. In the middle of the region is shallow Lake Neusiedl, a vast 315 sq km of water, which creates perfect conditions for Noble Rot allowing Feiler-Artinger, Kracher and Helmut Lang to make sublime sweet wines.

Hungary meanwhile continues to play its trump card from Tokaj. The Royal Tokaji Wine Company, resurrected with the help of Hugh Johnson, produces a range of these fabulous, intense sweet whites, almost orange in colour. Aszú denotes the shrivelled, ‘botrytised’ grapes that are added to the base dry wine. The sweetness then varies depending on the number of puttonyos (25 kg basket-worth of these shrivelled, sweet grapes) used the make the wine – the more ‘putts’, the more concentrated the juice extracted, the sweeter the end wine. This is a difficult production system, so quantities are limited. The Tokaji region has a vineyard classification system dating back to 1700 and its wines a reputation for amazing longevity based on these high natural levels of sugar and acidity. However, if you can’t wait, the rich fruit means that they are also wonderful if you drink them now.

The most northerly wines here are also our most local with David Millington’s Wroxeter vineyard, on the site of the Roman city, Viriconium, his Madeleine Angevine has elderflower character quite typical of English wine. Madeleine Angevine is, in our view, the most successful variety for still white in the UK, and when done well, is similar to a good Sauvignon. Three Choirs winery in Newent, Gloucestershire, is probably the most successful English winery - a tidy and efficient, modern operation under the guidance of Martin Fowkes. Three Choirs has planted one of the larger English vineyards and makes fruity, attractive wines in a medium style that work very well.

Stephen Crosland