The Grocer – 10 August 2019

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power list english wine

English wine is soaring in terms of

reputation and importance. These are

the players making the difference

POWER

ENGLISH WINE

Written by

Daniel Woolfson

champagne houses are buying up land in

the south of England – the most notable

being Champagne Taittinger, which became

the first champagne house to plant vines in

England in 2017, snapping up 20 hectares of

Kent countryside.

“There’s so much confidence. People are

very much feeling that we’ve broken the cred-

ibility barrier,” says WineGB chairman and

Hattingley Valley CEO Simon Robinson.

Even Brexit can’t put the brakes on. (It

might even be helping.) Exports to Europe are

marginal. And the devalued pound has made

our wines more attractive to far-off markets.

There are some worries about vineyards’ abil-

ity to attract seasonal labour, but that anxiety

pales in comparison to the woes potentially

faced by the wider wine trade. Other sectors

should be so lucky.

But the category is yet to properly break

into the mainstream off-trade. So what’s in

the way? Could this be the year English wine

finally hits the big time?

Last year may well have been the best har-

vest on record, but it will be some time before

shoppers actually get to taste the results from

many producers – for sparkling wines at least.

“It was an outstanding vintage and all the

stories about wineries being full to the brim

and the quality of the grapes are absolutely

true,” says Tamara Roberts, CEO of Sussex

winemaker Ridgeview Wine Estate, which

has just ploughed £1.8m into a new winery.

“But although we’ve all been very excited,

the 2018 vintage isn’t going to come on to the

market for another three to five years. The

harvests prior to those were very small vin-

tages and 2017 was very average.”

So demand is outstripping supply, which

has largely prevented English winemakers

from trading with the supermarkets – apart

from Waitrose – in any meaningful way.

“The volumes they can sell are such that

there have only ever been a few players who

could guarantee supply,” says Robinson.

“That’s all changing now, and I think 10 years

on you will see a very different marketplace.”

But national distribution will become

increasingly necessary as production levels

skyrocket. “We need to be on shelves in num-

bers, and we need to be in Tesco, not just

Waitrose,” says Roberts.

However, there are “worries around the

price points that would be expected, and

whether that channel could end up taking

up the entirety of their production. And for

many brands the prestige of the on-trade is

more important,” she adds.

Camel Valley’s Lindo refuses to work with

bigger supermarkets. “Those are not shelves

I want to be on. We have been approached

by bigger supermarkets but you can’t be in

{

4m

}

The number of bottles

of English and Welsh

sparkling wine sold

in the UK over 2018

[WSTA]

{

15m

}

The number of bottles

of English and Welsh

still and sparkling

wine produced last

year [WSTA]

{

3,578

}

The number of

hectares in the UK

under vine as of May

2019 – an 83% rise

since 2015 [WineGB]

{

40m

}

The number of wine

bottles the UK is

predicted to reach

per annum by 2040

[WineGB]

T

here’s no polite way of putting

it: English wine used to be a

laughing stock.

“When I first planted 30

years ago the reputation was

at rock bottom,” says Camel Valley Vineyard

CEO Bob Lindo. “It was mostly a hobby for

people who’d spent their lives doing some-

thing else. They were pioneers but the wine,

frankly, was awful.”

How things change. These days home-

grown sparkling wines are hoovering up

accolades and awards like there’s no tomor-

row. Diplomats are snapped lavishing

homegrown fizz on foreign dignitaries. New

vintages get launched in opulent function

rooms at The Ritz.

Production is surging to record levels; a fur-

ther three million vines were planted across

England and Wales over the year to May 2019,

(WineGB), up from 1.6 million the prior year.

And the 2018 vintage is shaping up to be one

of the best – if not the best – vintage yet, say

winemakers, in terms of volume and quality

of fruit, thanks to near-perfect weather.

Continental rivals are taking notice.

Emboldened by the hype across the channel,