British vineyards are toasting the best ever grape harvest thanks to a “near perfect year” for weather combined with more in production.
The industry is expecting to produce up to 22 million bottle of wine this year, almost twice the 12.2 million last year, according to the Wine GB trade body.
This smashed the previous record of bottles produced, set in 2018 at 13.1 million, by 50%.
Despite “a lacklustre cold summer”, year-round conditions and a warm September combined to bolster yields across the country, with East Anglia, the south east and Wessex leading the way as vines planted in previous years came to fruition.
In total, 30,000 tonnes of grapes were harvested across vineyards in England and Wales in 2023.
Vineyard hectarage now in full production reached some 3,230 hectares, up 151% from the 2,138 hectares in production in 2018.
Chardonnay, pinot noir, meunier and bacchus varieties – which make up more than 75% of UK planted area – “performed exceptionally well”, Wine GB said.
The four varieties had an average yield of 10 tonnes per hectare across all vineyards, and 15.9 tonnes per hectare in the top 25 per cent of vineyards.
Viticulture is now Britain’s fastest-growing agricultural sector, and the UK is planting vines more quickly than most of the world’s biggest wine producing countries.
And the thirst for English sparkling wine is increasing as quality and taste improves.
Experts claim that English fizz can now compete with Champagne on every level, and UK retail sales of champagne have dipped 17.7% in volume terms to the end of September, according to online magazine The Drinks Business.
Meanwhile, with the rising concern about carbon emissions, British consumers and corporations are more inclined to opt for local produce over imports where they can.
As events organisers contemplate net zero targets, serving English wine is one way of creating an “obvious statement” about sustainability, Hamish Anderson, chief executive of Tate Enterprises, said, which runs the Tate art galleries’ events and restaurants business.
He added: “Clients are asking us more and more about sustainability. English sparkling and still wine feeds into that narrative.”
English producers now account for about 60% of sparkling wine served at events held at the Tate, with the rest Champagne, and Anderson expects it to head to 70%.
English fizz currently accounts for 25% of sales for events run by Searcys, a British events and restaurants company, up from almost nothing five years ago, and its head of Champagne Martin Dibben forecasts it will be 50% in the next five years.
He said: “The sustainability is the thing that tempts them.”
The 2023 harvest would produce “a vintage to remember”, Stephen Skelton, Wine GB report author, viticultural consultant, and master of wine, said.
He said: “The excellent yields are attributed to not only the near perfect weather for grapes at key times of the growing season, but also comes on the back of more hectares than ever before coming into production.”
WineGB CEO Nicola Bates added: “There was a silver lining to our miserable summer, and that is a fantastic season for wine.
“UK consumers are drinking more and more home produce and at the same time exports are going up, especially in Scandinavia and Japan. We look forward to having more wine to present to our growing consumer base.”
