How City High-Flyers have Fuelled UK Wine-Growing Boom

A report compares the UK’s growing wine industry to California in the 1970s, with production increasing by more than twofold to 12m bottles per year. Will Banham is a partner in Knight Frank’s viticulture department. He said that there has been an increase in smaller growers, driven by City workers who have taken early retirement and want to try something different.

According to Knight Frank’s latest rural report, the area in the UK planted with grapes has increased by 75% to almost 4,047 acres (10,000 acres). Production has also increased by 130% and now exceeds 12m bottles per year. About 950 vineyards are located in the UK, including more than 100 in Wales.

Banham was told recently by an American investor who was looking for a site in the UK to build a vineyard: “They see the English wine industry now as they saw California in the 1970s, before there was significant inward investment.” The Napa Valley region in western US became a world leader in vineyard acreage after the 1980s. The UK’s wine industry, which is small and concentrated in the south of England, has benefited from rising temperatures. In the Climate Crisis, the extreme heat and drought are threatening grape production in traditional wine producing countries like France, Spain, and Portugal. Banham stated that some regions, particularly those in the French wine industry, had poor harvests.

Last year , Symington Family Estates – one of Portugal’s leading wine producers – teamed up Berry Bros & Rudd, Britain’s oldest fine wines merchant, to purchase Hambledon, England’s first commercial vineyard that planted vines back in 1952. The £22m purchase was described as an “important mitigation against the risks of climate change”. Pommery and Taittinger – two of France’s most renowned champagne houses – bought land and planted vineyards in England around a decade back, while Henkell Freixenet – the world’s largest sparkling wine producer – purchased the English wine estate Bolney by 2022. Taittinger Domaine Evremond’s first English sparkling wine will be available next spring.

Knight Frank stated that a debt squeeze due to a prolonged period of high UK rates has led to fewer potential vineyard sellers on the market. Chapel Down, Britain’s largest wine producer, announced in June that it was thinking about raising money and possibly even selling itself in order to build more vineyards or fund a new winery. The industry is booming due to rising temperatures and tax incentives.

New wine growers often are professionals who have left the City such as hedge funds managers, corporate lawyers and solicitors. They buy land that is typically owned by small vineyard owners, or farmers selling excess land.

The cost to plant vines and install trellis and fences on an English vineyard land is between £16,000 to £25,000 per acre. A vineyard that is already established typically sells between £35,000 and £40,000 per acre. Banham stated that the former office workers “want to find something else to do.” Banham said that “most of them are looking to purchase and plant land in the 10-to-30-acre range.”

Mark Driver is one of them. He and his wife Sarah created the Rathfinny Vineyard in Sussex, a former farm, in 2010, to produce sparkling wine.

Tom and Elisha, who worked both in the City, introduced the rose brand Folc at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 after years of mulling over the idea. I identified that there was a great opportunity to produce high-quality English Rose if we were able ripen grapes here in the UK. We have never looked back since we delved into the world English wine.

Banham stated that it will be difficult for small growers to sell wine to supermarkets wholesale. Some are considering opening a restaurant or cafe at their vineyard, offering tours, and selling directly to the consumer.