Champagne Taittinger has partnered with a group of unidentified private investors and British wine agent Hatch Mansfield to acquire 69 hectares of farmland in Kent, England, which will be developed into vineyards for the production of sparkling wine, according to Decanter. Through the plan, the group will plant the first 40 hectares of the property known as Selling Court farm, in chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinto meunier grapes in 2017.

 

“We believe we can produce a high quality English sparkling wine drawing upon our 80 years of winemaking expertise,” said Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of Champagne Taittinger, reports The Guardian.  “Our aim is to make something of real excellence in the UK’s increasingly temperate climate, and not to compare it with champagne or any other sparkling wine.”

 

Taittinger, which owns 288 hectares of vineyards in Champagne, will own 55% of the new UK venture, which expects to produce its first ‘fruit for winemaking’ in 2020. The group does not, however, expect to produce its first wine, which will be called Domaine Évermond, for another eight years. Once the vineyard is in full production, the group aims to reach production of 300,000 bottles of sparkling wine per year.

 

The chalky soil and south-facing slopes in Kent offer a nearly perfect combination of soil, microclimate, and topography, or terroir, for winemaking. Furthermore, Kent offers Taittinger the opportunity to expand at a fraction of the price that the company would face in France. Land suitable for vineyards in England can cost £25,000 per hectare on average depending upon location, according to the trade body English Wine Producers, while comparable land in France in 2014 cost £870,000 per hectare on average, according to France’s Safer land agency, reports Decanter.

 

Another factor supporting expansion into the UK is demand. Within the past year, sales of sparkling wines in UK supermarkets and retailers increased 27% by volume, while sales in UK restaurants and pubs increased by 41% by volume. Meanwhile champagne sales remained flat – a reflection of the significantly improvement in the quality of English sparkling wines in recent years.

 

Commenting on the venture, Patrick McGrath, of Hatch Mansfield told The Guardian, “We passionately believe in the future of English sparkling wine. It is a market we feel we need to be in and an industry which is growing quickly.”