IN ENGLAND, THE WINEMAKERS are relaxed. Spells of settled weather, a relatively sunny June and warm July have instilled a great deal of optimism across the industry. After the washouts of recent years, particularly 2011, it looks as if the dry weather has helped grapes ripen evenly. It’s early days but talk is already of 2014 being a bumper harvest.

“I’ve been on easy street these past few days,” Sam Lindo, winemaker at Cornwall’s Camel Valley vineyards, said when I visited him in early September. “It’s an easy harvest; everything...