Something happened a few months ago, back in the dark days
of December, something that had been whispered about for years. If you aren’t a
keen follower of UK wine trade news you might have missed it, but the fact is
that a Champagne house has finally invested in English vineyard land.
Taittinger, one of the most well-respected family-owned
Champagne houses, has purchased 69 hectares of land in Kent, which will be
planted with the three classic Champagne varieties of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
and Pinot Meunier, with the aim of eventually producing 300,000 bottles a year
of sparkling wine to be marketed under the name Domaine Evremond. Taittinger is
the largest investor in the project, which also involves Hatch Mansfield, their
UK importer, as well as other investors.
While the launch of a new English vineyard dedicated to
producing high quality sparkling wine is not exactly news nowadays, the fact
that the money and expertise behind it comes from Champagne itself is highly
significant. For English wine production to gain the seal of approval of a
major Champagne name marks an important milestone for the industry.
Overseas investment by the Champenois is not new: Champagne houses
have expanded their businesses and extended their brands by investing in the
New World over the past decades. For example, Roederer Quartet is Champagne
Louis Roederer’s Californian venture; Moët & Chandon has established
Domaine Chandon in Australia and Chandon in California. Rumours have swirled
around the English wine industry of interest from our friends across the
Channel, but, until now, that’s all they have been.
As well as appreciating the boost that outside investment
provides for our home-grown wines, we should also recognise the financial
realities behind this decision to invest in English vineyards – it’s a
pre-requisite that the investors have to believe in the potential to make a
high quality product which will be worthy of the Champagne Taittinger name. But
it is also true that expanding production via investment in this country is
considerably easier and cheaper than it is back in Champagne. There, a hectare
of land will cost in excess of 1 million Euros, up to 1.8 million Euros for the
very best, Grand Cru, sites. Compare that with an average price here of around
£25,000 (a little over 31,000 Euros). Though we don’t know how much Taittinger
and the other investors paid for their particular patch of Kent apple orchard, and
it is reported to amount to a multi million pound investment over ten years, it
will still be many times cheaper than the equivalent in Champagne.
In addition, the currently approved land which is authorised
to grow grapes for Champagne is in effect fully planted, so there is just not
the same opportunity to buy vineyard land there in the first place. And when a Champagne
grower wants to sell up, it’s a seller’s market, hence the stratospheric
prices.
So Taittinger’s investment in old Blighty is in part a
touching act of faith in the long term potential for English wine – but it is
also a hard-headed, prudent way for a growing business to expand in a
financially viable way. As for the wine
itself, it will be a decade or more before we get to taste the fruits of
Domaine Evremond – sparkling wine is a game that requires both deep pockets and
patience.
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