Four years ago Ned Awty quit his job at cigarette maker British American Tobacco to run his parents’ vineyard in Somerset, south-west England, because he had “had enough of corporate life”.
Oatley Vineyard had from the 1980s made wine from two cool-climate grapes: Madeleine Angevine, a little-known French variety, and Kernling, a relative of Germany’s Riesling.
But since taking over, Awty has planted Pinot Noir and Cabernet Noir varieties in the hope of one day adding reds and rosés to the 12,000 bottles of still and sparkling white wine produced annually by the family business.
Rising global temperatures have allowed English winemakers to cultivate a growing range of wines beyond the sparkling varieties that have come to rival French champagnes and won international acclaim.
Warmer weather has also boosted the number of buyers snapping up land to plant vineyards, making Britain the fastest-growing wine region in the world, according to estate agency Knight Frank.
Between 2017 and 2022, England and Wales more than doubled wine production to 12.2mn bottles, WineGB said. The industry body has estimated that 2023 will yield 20-22mn bottles after a record grape harvest in the autumn.
Ed Mansel Lewis, head of viticulture at Knight Frank, said demand for land to grow vines had rocketed because of the warming climate, and that a wider range of buyers had entered the market. As well as the usual wealthy retirees, new purchasers have ranged from distribution groups to international producers, including historic French champagne houses.
Investment over the past half-decade has already led to a big increase in planting. Land in wine production has jumped from 2,138 hectares in 2018 to 3,230 hectares across 950 vineyards today, according to WineGB.
Although more extreme weather has added uncertainty to the harvest, the prospect of consistently higher temperatures has offered more security to winemakers and would-be investors when it comes to planting grapes that once thrived only in warmer climes.
Modelling by the University of East Anglia has found that England and Wales are set to warm by up to 1.4°C during the growing season, which runs from March until October, by 2040.
Chapel Down, Britain’s largest wine producer, agreed this year to lease 117 acres in Kent, bringing its total planted vineyards to 1,023 acres. In June, US group Jackson Family Wines acquired 65 acres of vines in Essex’s Crouch Valley.
“It was bought at a significant premium above agricultural land value,” said Mansel Lewis, who brokered the purchase. “Finding 65 acres was quite difficult, so they are paying for the scarcity.”
Roughly £480mn has been invested in UK vineyards over the past five years, according to estate agency Strutt & Parker. The best land has sold for as much as £35,000 per planted acre, compared with £10,800 per acre for average arable land.
Some companies are even buying in England as a hedge against the risk of higher temperatures in other terroirs. Berry Bros. & Rudd and the Symington Group, which owns port brands such as Dow’s and Cockburn’s, this year acquired Hambledon, the UK’s oldest commercial vineyard, for £22.3mn.
After the deal, the buyers said the acquisition was “an important mitigation against the risk of climate change to each members’ respective core business models”.
Wine producers in Europe have been hammered by extreme heat in recent harvest seasons. Yields are down in almost every country on the continent, with production in Spain and Italy falling 14 per cent and 12 per cent respectively year on year, according to the International Organisation of Vine and Wine, which sets viticulture standards.
Nicola Bates, WineGB chief executive, said climate change had put English wine producers in a strong position, enabling them to move away from cooler climate grapes to “emulate and beat the French at their own game” through varieties such as Chardonnay.
It has also helped them diversify away from sparkling wine, which has historically dominated production, into still. England has lagged behind on the latter because it requires sustained warmer weather.
However, the barriers to entry for still wine remain higher. Makers can charge £30-£50 for a bottle of sparkling, but Awty said “if you charge that much [for a bottle of still], people expect it to be really good”.
Winemaking is a notoriously cash-intensive business, and production in England has suffered since the start of the cost of living crisis.
Most of the industry in England is made up of small winemaking operations, which produce 4-5,000 bottles a year. These groups depend on good harvests and local connections to sell produce, and are operating in an increasingly crowded field.
“Inflation has been difficult,” said Bates. “There have been some sales in the sector and there will be some more consolidation.”
Alongside Chapel Down, big hitters such as Gusborne, Nyetimber and Ridgeview are driving domestic consumption of English-made sparkling wine. Gusborne’s sales have tripled since 2020, while Chapel Down reported sales revenue growth of 21 per cent to £8.4mn in the first half of 2023.
Andrew Carter, chief executive of Chapel Down, said: “The champagne guys have been doing this for over three centuries. But in my lifetime we will see an English vineyard across the south-east of England that will be one of the best in the world.”
As part of a marketing campaign this year, the company entered a blind tasting test in France’s Champagne region. Some 60 per cent of participants preferred its sparkling wine to champagne.
Storied French champagne houses have already established a presence in the UK. Both Louis Pommery and Taittinger have planted vines in England, and the latter is expected to release its first English-made wine in 2024.
“It’s every English wine producer’s dream to be able to sit down and say they sold to Moët & Chandon,” said Knight Frank’s Mansel Lewis. “They want to tell their friends they made something of such quality that the French bought it.”
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