The recent bad weather in France has almost devastated the vine crops in the Champagne, Burgundy and Bordeaux regions. In some areas up to 50% of the crop has been lost to frost. Similarly, late frost has damaged much of the vine crops in the UK.
Winemakers in France can survive a bad harvest but in the UK wine producers cannot benefit from large economies of scale as the vineyards are small and production is therefore limited. UK winemakers have to charge more per bottle and therefore they are not as price competitive as winemakers in France, Italy, Spain, California and Australia.
Taittinger is to become the first Champagne House to invest in sparkling wine production in the UK, with their partners they have acquired a multi-hectare site in Kent which was formerly an orchard.
They hope to produce their first bottles of English Sparkling wine from chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes in five years time. Let's wish them lots of success even though the weather in Kent can still be very unfavourable for wine production.
English Sparkling wine is perfectly capable of competing with sparklers from all over the world including Champagne. Taittinger will have plenty of room to grow vines, so let's hope that the price will be kept down a bit.
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/dec/09/champagne-taittinger-to-produce-english-sparkling-wine-in-kent
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