I am Scottish. This does not mean I will be supporting some other country in the forthcoming World Cup. Absolutely not; I will be cheering for the English team in the same way that I did Tim Henman (for years) and hundreds of other English sportsmen and women.

Being supportive must not mean a loss of objectivity and I became quite grumpy at the recent English Wine Tasting when a few colleagues responded to a selective number of negative comments by saying that, as a Scot, I just could not bring myself to be more encouraging.

It is nonsense; I am an enthusiast for any well-made wine, regardless of its place of origin, but in the same way that school sports days have turned their back on outright winners, certain factions of the wine trade seem to be supporting our home-grown wine, in some instances, simply because it is English.

One respected Master of Wine served her praise in slightly more cautious terms; “Every year my teeth take a day or so less to recover from the acidity onslaught.”

Making good English wine is a challenging occupation. Despite climate change, we still struggle with unpredictable summers and cold and wet conditions at vital growing times.

In turn, yields can be tricky to predict and many English winemakers just cannot be sure what they will have to sell at the end of the vintage. Consistency in the wines is hard to achieve.

That said, England is producing some great wine. We should be very proud of our global reputation for the sparkling wines made here, and there are an increasing number of still white wines that really do impress. For me, the jury is still out on the red and rosé offerings, though there are notable improvements.

Nyetimber continues to reign supreme with its sparkling wines, regularly scoring above the top French Champagnes in competitions. Waitrose Wine (www.waitrosewine.com) has the 2002 vintage for £24.69 and it has a distinctive bready, citrus character that gives it quite a ‘Blanc de Blancs’ feel. I like it but for £16-odd quid (also www.waitrosewine.com) the Chapel Down Brut NV has a softer, more openly-fruity style that I think makes it more versatile as an aperitif and summer picnic wine.

Happily, Oxfordshire has some serious wine-making talent and Bothy Vineyard’s Oxford Dry 2009 (£7.90 from www.bothy-vineyard.co.uk) is a truly delightful, crisp, floral, aromatic white that I demolished a bottle of in our recent heatwave with pleasure.

Bothy has also just launched its first sparkling wine in 13 years and at £12.90 I think it has got real promise.

This weekend brings English Wine Week to a close and there is plenty going on to give you a flavour of our home-grown wine. Two Oxfordshire hotels are offering a free glass of English wine with a meal until Sunday, (Eastgate Hotel, The High Street, Oxford, and Whately Hall Hotel, Banbury Cross, Banbury). Brightwell Vineyard (Rush Court, Shillingford Road, Wallingford) is offering a free one-hour guided vineyard tour at 3pm on Sunday. The 14-acre vineyard sits in fabulous countryside and there is a chance to sample the goods at the end of the tour.

The potential is there and some are already achieving fabulous results.

To sign up for Sarah’s wine postcards, go to www.wine-talk.co.uk