England prides itself on making a lot of things well. Aeroplanes, pharmaceuticals, ciders, beers. Wine, however, not so much. Vinification has long been seen as the preserve of the continentals and something that we just have not got the weather for. After all, our climate is, for a lack of better world, terrible. (The fact that we are describing the recent nice spell as a “freakish heat wave” rather than just “summer” should act as a case in point.)
But even if our climate can’t compete with wine-growing chunks of the continent – or the New World, for that matter – it seems that our wine is fast beginning to.
Majestic announced last month that sales of English sparkling wine had trebled since 2012, likely buoyed by the Olympics. Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Marks & Spencer all now stock scores of domestic wines (many are rated as five stars by customers). Waitrose will be bringing out its own English wine range next year.
And it’s not just the vehicles of mass consumption. As of last year, the Foreign Office served more English wines than other wines, presumably with no complaints. The royals have also gotten behind English wine. The Queen intends to start selling English wines from her Windsor Great Park, while the Duchess of Cornwall has called on domestic sparkling wine to be given a jazzier name so that it can compete more effectively with its champagne rivals, and rising stars from the southern Mediterranean like cava and prosecco.
“When the Queen served Ridgeview [a wine from the South Downs] to President Obama at Buckingham Palace and then again at the Jubilee, people really started to take notice,” says Tom Gearing, CEO of vine investment firm Cult Wines.
“The way the image of English wine has developed since has been fantastic.”
Chalk, Champagne, soil and Surrey: why English wine tastes fine
This may sound strange given that good English wine was, until relatively recently, considered as oxymoronical as fat-free cheese or calorie-free chocolate, but it turns that the “birth” of English wine is in fact much more of a Renaissance.
Back in the millennia when Britain was still part of the European landmass, large swaths of south-east England were joined to what is now France’s modern-day Champagne region. Wine grew in Britain in abundance during Roman times, and then again during the Middle Ages when the Earth enjoyed a brief warming spell that roughly lasted from 950 to 1250 AD.
The Champagne region may have left us behind and evolved into the pinnacle of fizzing beverage greatness, but both that landmass and south-east England have retained their unique chalky soil.
Having chalky soil may not sound like the appetising of propositions, but vines love to grow on it. The problem (or the opportunity, depending on how you want to look at this) is that this kind of limestone-heavy soil is rare - and particularly rare at higher altitudes, such as southern England and northern France.
It is so rare, in fact, that Champagne region vineyard bosses are widely rumoured to be sniffing around Surrey in search of more land on which to expand. Agricultural land in Surrey is about 10 times cheaper than in corresponding areas of France and, for now, there is more of it to go around.
English wine-growers, particularly those in the south-east and in and around London, are starting to take advantage – and they are blossoming.
The older brands are getting better at producing wines, while a growing number of new players are looking to enter the market. Together, they are slowly starting to distill the old notions that British wine is all but undrinkable.
Meet the English vineyard owners
Chris White is general manager of Denbies vineyard, which is one of the UK’s best known vineyards and lies just a few kilometre outside the M25 in Dorking, Surrey. He has watched the trend for English wine unfold since the mid-1980s, when his family first bought the then-pig-farm and decided to turn it into a vineyard.
“When we started out it was not all that easy,” he says. “People were not sure about English wine. But now saying that we are an English wine is one of our best and biggest strengths.
“Demand has never been higher, from supermarkets and customers alike.”
Waitrose and P&O ferries have taken to stocking Denbies’ wine, and its rose offering often sells out exceedingly quickly.
It’s the success of pioneers like Denbies that has, in turn, inspired a generation of other UK-based wine growers.
Former hedge fund manager Mark Driver is one such budding wine-entrepreneur, looking not only to enter but to dominate the space.
His Rathfinny Farm in East Sussex, another good English wine-growing region, hopes to be producing one million bottles of sparkling wine and white wine by 2020.
“If you had asked me in the mid-1980s about English wine, I would have thought it was pretty disgusting,” laughs Driver. “But most wines these days are good. Some are even better than good, and our sparkling wine is stunning. It is already a world-beater and has the ability to the best in the world.”
The demand for English wine is growing, and therein is real commercial opportunity. If Driver meets his target, he will singlehandedly be producing about a quarter of the UK’s total annual wine production, and will easily be the biggest UK-based producer.
This may seem like quite an ambitious goal for a man who freely admits he had almost no viticulture experience until 2009, but it shows the staggering capacity for growth in this market. While we may not be known as great wine growers, we are certainly a nation of wine drinkers.
In 2012 we Brits drank more than 147 million cases of wine. Consumption of our home-grown wines, at around four million bottles, made up just a fraction of a percent of that total, despite the amount of land under vine cultivation in England doubling in the last 10 years, with production levels following suit.
“As the Americans would say, you just have to do the maths,” says Driver, who splits his time between west London and his Sussex farm. “English wine is a booming industry with huge potential for growth.”
A self-reinforcing spiral has subsequently developed over the last 20-odd years, and accelerated over the last few. As demand for wine has grown in the UK, so too has investment in English wine. This in turn has created better wines, which have sparked even more interest.
The number of wines in Sussex and Kent that have been awarded medals and commendations by the International Wine Challenge has more than doubled in five years. This year, four English wines were given gold medals. In 2010, the UK-made Nyetimbers sparkling wine shooed off competition from French rivals that cost twice as much to be voted in as the worlds’ best bubbly.
Helping Hand
But the market alone cannot be commended for sparking the Brit vine revival, and many UK wine-growers admit they owe their changing fortunes to a helping hand from the environment.
Believe it or not, our climate is changing. The temperature in parts of the south-east has on average warmed by one degree celsius over the last 10 years. This may not seem like much, but in grape world it is the difference between a Lambrini and a vintage Chateau Latour. (In case the name dropping goes over your head, one is loved by paralytic hens and pirates, the other by aristocrats and the world’s best wine writers.)
“It may not feel like it sometimes, but overall over the past 10 years, there has been an improvement,” says Driver. “I’ve look at the statistics for my local weather station at Eastbourne very closely. They have weather data going back 100 years. It flat-lined for 25 to 30 years, and then has been increasing during the last 10.
“It is definitely a factor when thinking about the prospect for English wine.”
Even this slight warming has made the UK a friendlier place for champagne grapes, including chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier. Because they are better-known, these grapes tend to be more marketable - both here in the UK and abroad - than older German grapes verities that until recently dominated Britain’s small vineyard industry.
Should you invest in English wine?
The hope is that this new wave of English wines will find overseas markets. The shrewdest of vineyard bosses are already looking to Japan, South East Asia and Middle East, where demand for wine is growing but the attachment to continental European supply is not yet fully entrenched.
This second market demand will be critical if English wine wants to enjoy sustainable growth and a true revival.
Only when wine has a strong reputation in a second market does it become seen as an investment-worthy acquisition, explains wine investor Gearing.
“English wine is definitely an interesting market, but it terms of buying bottles for investment, it’s not quite there,” he says. “You need to have stronger international demand for specific vintages for that kind of investment to become worthwhile.
“We are growing, but French champagne houses have 400 to 500 years on us. So while we are catching up quickly, there is more work to be done.”
Driver says: “We still produce less wine [per land under cultivation] than they do on the continent. […] We are in agriculture and in the business of growing grapes. Things are unpredictable, but you have to live with these variations.
“We have had some very good years, but the last couple were challenging - that is why certain wines cost more - but over a 10-year period you hope you will get more good years than you will get bad.”
London’s first organic vineyard since the Middle Ages, Forty Hall, is a clear example of the battle that UK winemakers have to fight. It may only be a few years old but the small organic vineyard is already well-versed in the fragility of British viticulture.
Since setting up right in the heart of Enfield in 2009, it has already had one dud year. Its original attempt at cultivation was a flop and its first fruits failed to grow in 2009 but the East London team refused to be discouraged.
Their second attempt has gone much better, and the troop of loyal volunteers hopes to harvest their first crop, planted back in 2011, this autumn.
They understand that wine production can be a waiting game. Vines take several years to plant and cultivate, and usually several more to age in the bottle.
Most English sparkling wine is aged for at least two years in the bottle before it ever hits our shelves. This sets it apart from better-established champagne knock-offs like prosecco, that can be rolled out more quickly but it also means that domestic winegrowers require a hell of a lot of start-up capital to get their operations off the ground.
English vineyards, though, have always accepted that they will not have an easy run of it, and have long been trying to find ways to compensate. Many – especially around London - try to double-up as year-round tourist destinations. Companies, couples and the curious weekend vacationer all love to take trips down to see the process. Some even want to lend a helping hand for free.
“There is a real curiosity about the process,” says White. “People want to know how it is done and want to get educated about wines.
“Being so close to London is a huge advantage and visitor [numbers] grow every year.”
The mix of climate, demand and tourism means that many English wine-growers are still choosing to take up the gamble, even if the rewards are not necessarily quite prime for the plucking yet.
“I could have bought a boat - and there are days when I wonder why I am not living in the Caribbean somewhere – but I love my job,” says Driver. “It is really exciting to watch the industry grow and develop, and I’m certain English wine will become world-famous.”