There's not been a great deal of good news around recently but this is not the case with in the UK wine industry where demand is currently outstripping supply!
South facing slopes of chalky soil, located predominantly in West Sussex, Kent and Dorset mimic the environment of Epernay in France where many of the most stunning Champagne's in the world are produced.
More and more young UK vineyards are using this environment to create some stunning, award winning wines, especially sparkling, such as Langham Estate in Dorset and Upperton Vineyard close by in West Sussex.
Before the days of Covid-19 the UK wine industry had already grown 70% year on year and in 2019 produced 5.5m bottles of wine. Luckily Brexit seems not to have effected the industry with the devalued pound making English exports more attractive for far away markets the largest being Scandinavia, USA, Canada and Australia, a total of 10% of our yield now leaves our shores.
As restrictions are lifted new deals are being struck in the Far East, including Japan where Gusborne Estate in Kent who have just signed to supply sparkling wine to Japanese Airways. this is all you will be able to drink in their first class lounge and you will not be disappointed!
With all this evidence in hand French champagne houses such as Taittinger are frantically buying up land in the South East. 3.2m vines were planted in the UK in 2019 with more land being identified for viticulture since including 80,000 acres of Kent.
Over the next 5-10 years, this market place with evolve as supply starts to catch up with demand so let's hope the challenges faced by our wine producers are minimal and the good news can continue!