England makes fine sparkling wines

English wine has taken off in the last thirty years. The number of winemakers has increased dramatically in the last thirty years. The English now make around 13 million bottles of wine per year. The majority of this is sparkling and inspired by French Champagne. Due to the chalky soil in the South of England and global warming, the terroir is also showing more and more similarities with the famous French wine region.

Making wine in England may not be as crazy as it sounds. The Romans were already doing it a few centuries after the start of our era. Wine was also made in England in the Middle Ages, although winemakers did not have it easy with the competition from Bordeaux. A region that has been supplying the British with (a lot of) wine for a long time. The disappearance of the monasteries as a result of the Reformation in the 15th and 16th centuries did not help either, of course.

The current revival of English wine has its origins in the second half of the previous century. A few pioneers started making wine commercially. They were inspired by the wines from Champagne. That was a wise choice for several reasons. The climate has (certainly in the last twenty years) similarities with Champagne. It would currently be comparable to Champagne in the 1980s. The south of England - in particular the county of Sussex - also has a soil composition comparable to Champagne: a lot of lime.

In the last thirty years, the number of wineries and the size of English vineyards have grown enormously. Total production has grown from 14,000 hectoliters in 2000 to 98,000 hectoliters in 2022. For comparison: Dutch wine production was around 8,000 hectoliters in 2022 and Belgian 30,000 hectoliters. English wine is made by around 150 wineries. The largest and most important, such as Ridgeview Wine Estate, Gusbourne Estate and Chapel Down are large, very professionally operating wineries.

Still more than half of English wine is sparkling. They are made according to the 'traditional method' developed in Champagne. The grapes that the English use for this are also the same as in Champagne: Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier. Together they account for approximately 70% of the English vineyards. For still wines, the English winemakers often use other grapes. The most important are Bacchus, Seyval Blanc, Pinot Blanc, Reichensteiner and Müller-thurgau, all white grapes. The vast majority of English still wines are therefore white.

With further global warming, it is expected that England will continue to become more suitable for wine growing, that production and quality will also continue to increase in the coming years. A wine country to keep an eye on.