Chapel Down Group Plc, the UK’s largest wine producer, said that prospects for this year’s harvest are looking good, as grapes benefit from a growing season that has been hotter than usual.
“We’ve had a good summer so far,” sales and marketing director Guy Tresnan said in an interview.
“A lot can happen, but at the moment, we’re happy.”
Chapel Down, based in Tenterden, Kent, south-east England, grows white Chardonnay, Pinot Blanc and Bacchus grapes, along with red Pinot Noir. Its still whites, rosés and reds, along with sparkling wines, retail for about £10-£27 a bottle, according to its website.
The winery’s harvest last year was the “biggest ever”, after crops in 2011 and 2012 were hurt by bad weather, chief executive officer Frazer Thompson said in a phone interview. “This year, we’re expecting to exceed that.”
Sales rose 4 per cent in 2013 to a record £5.03 million ($8.3 million).
While this year shows promise, Chapel Down recognises that the British weather still has time for an unwelcome surprise.
“If it gets cold, if it gets wet, suddenly you find the ripening isn’t happening as you’d like,” Tresnan said. “The more rain you get, the more dilution there is in the grapes.”
Met Office
There are more than 400 vineyards in the UK, covering more than 3,500 acres (1,416 hectares), producing both still and sparkling wines, according to the English Wine Producers’ website.
Chapel Down says that it has 18 acres planted to vines in production at its home vineyard on a 68-acre site in Tenterden, 95 acres planted further north, on a 115-acre site near Aylesford, and further vines under contract elsewhere across the south-east.
Temperatures in the UK exceeded the 30-year average for eight straight months through July, with last month equalling the eighth-warmest July since 1910, according to Met Office data.
While the UK had 82 per cent of average rainfall last month overall, that reflected drier weather in the south-west and wetter conditions in parts of eastern England, the data showed.
Bloomberg News, edited by ESM
