The Grocer – 10 August 2019

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Camel Valley was also the first English

wine brand to win a royal warrant (in 2018),

and Lindo has been fundamental in build-

ing the relationship between the royal family

and the English wine sector. It was his mas-

terstroke, as chairman of the UK Vineyards

Association, to approach the Duchess of

Cornwall in 2011 to become its president –

making her a figurehead for English wine. To

this day she remains its “number one influ-

ence”, says Lindo.

Indeed, the marketing sway that not

just the Duchess but the entire royal fam-

ily have had when it comes to the success

of English wine should not be understated.

Chapel Down CEO Frazer Thompson says

when William and Kate – now the Duke and

Duchess of Cambridge – were alleged to have

served Chapel Down wine at their wedding,

his business underwent a “quantum change”

from “having to beg people to taste our wine

to queues of hundreds”.

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Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger

CEO, Champagne Taittinger

That the oft-controversial CEO of Champagne

Taittinger (he notoriously once compared

champagne with Viagra and has criticised

competitors for charging overly high prices

for prestige champagnes) is placed on this list

is a testament to what the future, rather than

the present, holds for the English wine sector.

Taittinger planted its first vines at Domaine

Evremond, its freshly acquired Kentish vine-

yard, in 2017, as part of a joint endeavour with

its UK distributor Hatch Mansfield. This made

it the first French champagne house to do so

on British soil (although it was shortly fol-

lowed by Champagne Pommery, which now

owns a 40-acre site in Hampshire).

That top-end French winemakers are gob-

bling up land in England is in itself a resound-

ing endorsement of the climate (and how

drastically the climate has changed over

past decades), and the possibilities for future

viniculture.

Admittedly, Domaine Evremond does not

plan to release any wines until 2023. And

Taittinger has said he plans to step down from

the helm of the company long before that

happens. But the significance of the famous

brand’s move across the Channel should not

be underestimated as a harbinger of things

to come.

It may well end up being remembered as

the moment the English wine ‘gold rush’ truly

ignited.

issues with supply and started allowing for

regional deliveries rather than pushing for

national distribution,” adds Roberts.

Whether Waitrose can hang on to its posi-

tion as the dominant retailer for English wine

as the category grows remains to be seen. But

with minds like Hull – and of course head of

wine buying Pierpaolo Petrassi – on board,

it is certainly up to the challenge.

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Bob Lindo

CEO, Camel Valley Vineyard

Camel Valley founder Bob Lindo says he’ll

never go into the bigger supermarkets. So it’s

unlikely his brand will ever achieve the main-

stream distribution needed to rival the likes

of Chapel Down or Nyetimber. And Lindo has

famously never spent a single penny on mar-

keting or advertising.

Put simply, he doesn’t need to. From day-

time TV features to wine critics’ top picks,

Lindo’s wines have a reputation for quality,

with endorsements from top chefs such as

Raymond Blanc and Rick Stein. Last year’s

International Wine Challenge cemented his

legacy, with a lifetime achievement award

for having pioneered and driven the growth

in English wine over the past 30 years.

“What we’ve resisted the urge to do is grow

beyond what we can achieve. We tailor what

we make to what we sell,” says Lindo. “We

don’t want to go off charging round the world

trying to offload loads of cases on unsuspect-

ing foreigners.”

Instead, Lindo leads weekly ‘grand tours’

for 50 people around the vineyard, which he

argues has been more successful in build-

ing word of mouth and actually getting peo-

ple to drink the wine than any traditional

marketing he could have invested in. “Our

motto from the beginning has been ‘it’s the

wine, stupid’,” he quips.

“Waitrose took

on board the

sector’s issues

with supply and

started allowing

for regional

deliveries”