IIt’s a boom time for English winemaking. Last year’s harvest was the best ever, producing 22 million bottles, almost double the previous bumper crop of 13 million in 2018. And the area planted on our green, pleasant land has more than quadrupled since 2000 to 4,209 hectares, with English and Welsh grapes being sent to more than 200 wineries.
Growing faster than any of the top 25 wine-producing countries, there has been an explosion of foreign investment here, with Champagne houses Taittinger arriving in 2015, Vranken-Pommery soon after and Spanish cava producer Henkell-Freixenet acquiring Bolney Wine Estate in West Sussex in 2022. California’s Jackson Family Wines is the latest entrant, buying up prime vineyard land in the warmest, driest region.
