The great British wine sale: why we should welcome foreign investors

In the spring of 2014, I took my first trip to the wine region of Sonoma, California. I will never forget waking up early to take a drive through the vineyards of Knight’s Valley, Calistoga and its surroundings.

It’s where I really started to understand the meaning of “the Golden Hour” – that brief period of time just after sunrise where the sunlight is perfectly diffuse. The vivid yellow mustard was in bloom amongst the vines and meadows, and the bright orange Californian poppies burst open in that beautiful, soft, flaxen light – this was the stuff of vineyard fantasy.

But what does this stunning part of the world have in common with the clay-based soils of the attractive – but in a far less glossy, Californian way – landscape of Essex?

The answer is wine. More specifically, one of the largest wine companies in the world: Jackson Family Wines.

The Sonoma-based company sells over six million cases of wine per year globally, and is currently the ninth largest wine company in the United States. Barbara Banke, the CEO of the family-run operation, announced in 2023 that they were in the process of acquiring land in the Crouch Valley, Essex, having shown an interest in the potential of English sparkling and still wine for a number of years.

Essex, and specifically the Crouch Valley, has a notably dry and warm climate, making it one of the best places to plant vines, including chardonnay and pinot noir – and the land doesn’t come cheap.

This investment is just one of several foreign-based wine companies whose curiosity is piqued by the flourishing English wine industry – and this can only be a good thing for us. English wine is bucking the global trend which is seeing an overall decline in plantings and production. Business is booming here, with British plantings increasing by 74 per cent over the past five years to 2023 – and there could be more foreign investment to come.

This week Gusbourne, the London-listed company, announced that its majority shareholder Lord Ashcroft was open to selling his majority shareholding. This comes off the back of the announcement in June that Chapel Down, the UK’s biggest wine producer, was considering putting itself up for sale as the company conducted a strategic review of its business.

Two notable Australian wine giants have been mentioned with regards to Chapel Down: Accolade, and Treasury Wine Estates (though they’ve denied speculation). Accolade’s big names include Hardys and Echo Falls, whilst Treasury Wine Estate can boast Blossom Hill and Wolf Blass, as well as many others.

What these names bring with them is a big budget and a global market – both of which help our domestic wine-industry – from the long-established to the new wave of producers. For English wine to be successful and to ensure its longevity, it needs not only a strong domestic market, but a robust export market too.

Big names like Accolade offer a wealth of experience in establishing brands globally. Smaller-scale producers will be able to reach global markets (if they have the volume of production) through an increased awareness of English wine. I doubt many Australians, Americans and Canadians are even aware that we produce some of the finest sparkling wines in the world.

Foreign interest in UK wine production isn’t that new – Taittinger announced the launch of Domaine Evremond in 2015, with their first release expected in the spring of 2025. They were the first champagne house to invest in the UK, but others have followed, including Pommery, who produce the Hampshire grown sparkling wine “Louis Pommery”. This was swiftly followed by the cava behemoth Henkell Freixenet buying Bolney Estate, located in Sussex, in 2022.

These are large, globally recognised names who can introduce not only cash, but scale. With this, there is a real opportunity for the wines of the UK to only be recognised, but enjoyed by a global audience.

There is great diplomacy in wine. It has the power to bring people together, and that couldn’t be better demonstrated than by our own wines reaching all corners of the world. Let’s just make sure we continue to support and celebrate the same potential that these international companies are investing in.

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