When it comes to British wine production, everything’s coming up rosé

I like to think I’ve been a lover of English wine since long before it was popular. My first exposure to the good stuff came at the tender age of nine, when I won a grape-crushing competition on a family day trip to the English Wine Centre in Alfriston, East Sussex. Back in the early nineties, I don’t think anyone would’ve predicted the astonishing growth in our home-grown sector. I was excited then, but I’m really excited now.

English and Welsh wine is in the ascendancy. This week, Chapel Down’s Rosé Brut NV was awarded one of the Best in Show medals at the prestigious Decanter World Wine awards – beautifully timed for English Wine Week. Whilst it may not seem like a big deal, it’s the first time an English wine has ever graced the list, which is highly regarded globally.

In addition to Chapel Down placing in the top 50, overall the UK had its best year to date in the competition, winning 186 medals – up from 143 last year – in a field of 18,143 wines from 57 countries. The judges said they “found the wine hard to resist”, adding: “Its petal pink couldn’t look prettier in the glass, while the aromatic fruits are satisfyingly restrained and subtle, and the palate clean emphatic.” Alluring praise indeed.

We’ve come a long way from the days when I was winning prizes of colouring pencils for my foot-stomping prowess. Vineyards then, whilst numerous, were very small, family-owned affairs. You’d have been more likely to find plantings of bacchus, seyval blanc, müller-thurgau, madeleine angevine and huxelrebe, rather than the champagne varietals, chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier that you see today – these now account for over 70 per cent of plantings across the UK, and they’re the perfect ingredients for our award-winning sparkling and still wines.

We’re a long way from having a deeply entrenched wine-growing culture in the UK – it takes a long time for vines to grow deep, sustainable roots (both literally and metaphorically). But the shift is definitely taking place. There’s a real zeitgeist among growers and an optimism which is seen directly in an increase in plantings, most notably across the southeast of the country.

And it’s not just the large estates who are dominating the market. There are numerous smaller, lesser-known producers with only a small number of vines creating experimental, adventurous and delicious wines too. Never has the field seemed so open for a new and exciting future of English and Welsh wine.

According to Wine GB, the national association for the English and Welsh wine industry, there were 3,928 hectares under vine in 2022, compared to an estimated 150 hectares in the 1990s. And the increase is set to continue, with planting predicted to reach 7,200 hectares by 2032, with an upper projection of 9,100 hectares. 2022 saw 12.2 million bottles produced, split between 8.3m bottles of sparkling wine and 3.9m bottles of still wine, but this figure nearly doubled in the bumper crop of 2023, with estimates of nearly 22 million bottles produced.

And whilst it definitely remains an expensive, premium product, prices are coming down slightly, and a wider range of styles of wines can be found on our shelves in the supermarkets and indie wine shops.

Winemakers in both France and Italy have recently expressed an excitement for the UK and our burgeoning wine industry, with many up-and-comers eager to gain experience in the vineyards in Britain (let’s just hope they can get a visa). There aren’t many places in the world that can boast such growth and change in wine currently.

But not everything is rosy (or, indeed, rosé) – there are real challenges that face the industry, and we should be aware of them. But, as Henry Sugden, the CEO of the specialist contract wine-making facility Defined Wines says: “Given that we drink 1.1 billion bottles of wine in the UK and currently only produce 21m bottles in England and Wales, I think there is the opportunity to grow domestic sales. It won’t be easy, not least because of the additional costs of producing wine in the UK compared to other countries abroad. But once British consumers realise what great-quality wines are being made locally, then I think there is every reason why the sector can grow successfully.”

And this is the feeling that I’m left with as the sun sets on this year’s English Wine Week. In a time where optimism seems thin on the ground, there’s a beautiful opportunity to welcome in a new wine culture onto our shores. I’ll happily toast to that.

Rosamund Hall (DipWSET) is a freelance writer and wine expert