Is Britain the new place to get your wine?

**SPEAKER_1** (0:05)
Is Britain the new place to get your wine?
Thanks for asking. Think wine and you probably think of France, Bordeaux, Burgundy or Beaujolais, but we could soon be looking to Kent, Dorset and Hampshire instead, especially when it comes to sparkling wine.
Since 2000, the total amount of land in England and Wales given over to vineyards has quadrupled in size, and established winemakers, particularly from the Champagne region in France, are taking notice and are keen to take advantage of this new market. Who's taking an interest in English wine? In 2016, the Pommery group invested in farmland in Kent, which they transformed into vineyards. When interviewed for the Daily Mail about the 2022 harvest, Julien Lonneux from Pommery said, This is a truly vintage crop, easily the best in a decade. They produce the three main grape types which go into the production of champagne, Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay. And they hope that by 2024 to have a production target of 200,000 bottles per year.
Likewise, Tattinger has invested in Kent. After much searching for the perfect south-facing, gently sloping farmland with the right soil, wind and water, they finally bought 100 acres near the village of Chilham.
They have called their domain Evermonde, after Charles de Saint-Evermonde, a 17th century French diplomat who helped introduce champagne to England and is buried in Westminster Abbey. Why is English wine getting better? Climate change means that the weather is becoming more suitable for grape production and the chalky soil found in the south of England is similar to that found in the champagne region in France. Of course, sparkling wine made outside the boundaries of the wine growing region of champagne can not be called champagne. But the demand for sparkling wine is outstripping supply. And so although English wine may once have been considered undrinkable, that is a completely different story today. Bottles that I have been experiencing over the past 18 months have been nothing short of superb, says veteran London merchant and wine writer Mark Roberts of Decorum Vintas in the Daily Mail, with an ideal balance between fruit and acidity, allied to depth and complexity, distinctly different beasts to those I had encountered over 20 years ago. For English wine, both quality and quantity have improved. Wine production is now around 9 million bottles per year. Two thirds of that is sparkling wine. There you have it. Now you know if Britain is the new place to get your wine. In under three minutes we answer your questions and help you understand the true meaning behind the trends, concepts and acronyms that are making headlines. Listen along and you really will know for sure.