“We’ve never had a frost here,” says Adrian Pike, pointing to rows of vines just beginning to show signs of tiny buds in Kent’s weak spring sun.
Westwell vineyard is located on the grounds of a former monastery and is located close to the Pilgrims Way in the Northern Downs, the historic route to Canterbury that runs along the crest of the hill behind the vineyard.
Pike believes he is “incredibly lucky” when it comes to terroir: even after heavy winter rains and “mud everywhere”, his fields are “not too bad” due to chalky soil drainage and protection against sharp spring frosts that can fatally freeze grape buds.
“It has to do with the elevation, the trees behind the Pilgrim’s Path,” he says. “The frost flows a little like water; It doesn’t hit land until it passes us. The soil here is light and soft, full of flint and a sun trap.”
Pike, 52, is among a new generation of entrepreneurs investing in British vineyards as the climate warms and vineyards proliferate as far north as Yorkshire and Scotland.
The climate crisis led to the UK experiencing its second hottest year on record last year; Rising temperatures have created increasingly ideal conditions for growing grapes in Britain. But extreme heat also threatens to destroy typical wine regions such as Spain, Italy and Southern California, where harvests are predicted to plummet.
“I don’t want to put a positive spin on climate change because it’s not a positive thing,” Pike says. “With every degree, the temperature here increases and the weather changes in other places. “People growing up in Burgundy are faced with things they’ve never encountered before due to the unpredictability of the weather.”
After his career in the music industry, Pike turned to viticulture. In the mid-1990s he was living in London’s Primrose Hill, racing between seven gigs a night on his Vespa scooter. He co-founded the record label Moshi Moshi, which has released music such as Hot Chip and Florence + the Machine, and also runs music distributor state51 Conspiracy.
“There were a lot of bands and an explosive scene back then,” he says. “We had creation [records] Primal Scream at the end of our drive and at the bar every weekend. It was a fun time.”
When Pike left the music industry he became interested in English wine, retrained and became managing director of Westwell in 2017; This company currently produces more than 50,000 bottles per year of four different grape varieties: Pinot meunier, pinot noir, chardonnay and ortega. “I didn’t think wine would be a career, but it turned out it could be,” he says.
It is part of a booming industry driven by the climate crisis, the appeal of tax cuts and a new asset class transforming viticulture. Estate agent Knight Frank describes England as the fastest-growing wine region in the world. Vineyards produce the fastest-growing edible agricultural crop in England, with grapes representing 36% of the UK’s soft fruit crop, according to the latest data published by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.
According to a report published in June 2023 by WineGB, the organization that supports the growth of the British wine industry, there are currently 943 vineyards in the UK; This figure is almost three times the number 20 years ago.
WineGB reports that vine plantings have increased by 74% to 4,000 hectares (9,884 acres) in the previous five years, with plantings expected to reach 7,600 hectares by 2032, yielding a potential 24.7 million bottles. Between 2017 and 2022, England and Wales will more than double wine production, from 5.3 million bottles to 12.2 million bottles, according to WineGB.
There have been vineyards in England since Roman times, and wine has been produced commercially since the 1960s, but it had a dubious reputation because it came largely from Germanic grape varieties grown in cooler climates.
British wine began to shake off its bad reputation in the 1980s, as winemakers such as Nyetimber began moving away from German grapes and growing varieties such as pinot noir and chardonnay, and British sparkling wines began to win awards.
Ian Sargent, who founded Laurel Vines, a vineyard near Driffield in East Yorkshire, says it was the sixth or seventh vineyard in Yorkshire when he started planting in 2011. God’s own county currently boasts 24 members. He is chairman of WineGB’s Midlands and northern region, which had 28 members when he took over in 2015 and now has 72 members, including two in Scotland. He knows an entrepreneur who plans to plant a vineyard near Inverness this year.
Sargent started with 2,000 vineyards in 2011 and now has four hectares with 15,000 vineyards.
“The change in climate is very noticeable,” he says. “Our first planting included German vines, but five years ago we could see the changes in temperatures and started planting pinot noir and chardonnay. Myself and five other vineyards have established a wine route in Yorkshire. “If you had told me 10 years ago that we would have a wine route in Yorkshire I wouldn’t have believed you.”
The climate is expected to warm further. A report by the University of Reading in December 2022 found that the impact of climate change means a fifth of the UK could have suitable weather conditions for growing chardonnay grapes to make wine by 2050.
PhD student Alex Biss, who is leading the project, says a good harvest of chardonnay is not currently reliably available in the UK, but climate change will change this in the not-too-distant future. “The fact remains that climate change will drive viticulture to expand further in the UK,” says He. Areas likely to have the best conditions to reliably produce high-quality chardonnay wine by 2050 include south-east England, east England and central England.
The research model, developed by Biss and professor of crop science Richard Ellis, determined that 20-25% of UK land could be suitable for chardonnay grapes by 2050. This compares with the current figure of just 2% in the model covering 2010-2010. 2019 period.
Nicola Bates, WineGB’s chief executive, says two-thirds of its members are small producers with fewer than 12,000 bottles. The sector is forecast to employ 30,000 people (full-time equivalent), including tourism and hospitality, by 2040, up from around 2,500 currently.
Demand, aided by tax cuts, has led to vineyards gaining attention as a new asset class. Estate agent Strutt & Parker said in a report last year that inquiries about buying vineyards had tripled in the past year and it was estimated that a total of £480 million had been invested in vineyards and wineries in the last five years.
Nick Watson, head of viticulture at Strutt & Parker, says: “The pace of planting in the last five years has been particularly striking and some of that investment has come from people wanting to start a small vineyard as a hobby or as a small business, which I have gone on to have a successful career elsewhere.”
According to the report, farmland values in south-east England have risen to around £10,000 to £12,000 per acre (0.4 hectare), so the value of land suitable for vineyards has also increased and is now selling for between £16,000 and £20,000 per acre. It is stated that the best vineyards can be sold for £ 35,000 per acre planted.
Peter Harker, partner at consultant Saffery, says the increase in vineyard investment is coming from two areas: individuals and larger producers.
“We are seeing wealthy private investors who are either from the countryside or who like to do something different and enjoy the romance of running a vineyard,” he says. “Their primary motivation is to do something interesting and fun with their money, and they are willing to wait as returns can be quite slow.”
Among those investing are city financiers. Michael Spencer, the former treasurer of the Conservative party and founder of the Nex financial group formerly known as Icap, owns almost 30% of Chapel Down, which listed on the Aim exchange last year. Chapel Down owns, leases and sources 414 hectares of vineyards in south-east England. Eric Heerema, a former lawyer and asset manager, owns its biggest rival Nyetimber, while former banker Nicholas Coates co-founded sparkling wine producer Coates & Seely.
US and French producers are also buying land in the southeast. California-based wine company Jackson Family Wines, which owns the Kendall-Jackson brand and has wineries in the US, Australia and South Africa, last year purchased 26 hectares of land in Essex, where it plans to grow chardonnay and pinot noir grapes.
Taittinger champagne bought land in Kent to launch English sparkling wine Domaine Evremond in 2015 and is expected to produce its first British-made sparkling wine brand this year. Louis Pommery had already purchased land in Alresford, Hampshire, in 2010.
Another factor encouraging wealthy individuals to invest in vineyards is agricultural property relief (APR) rules, which allow UK residents to transfer agricultural property, including vineyards and woodlands, without having to pay inheritance tax. The tax laws were designed to ensure families could continue farming without death taxes but have proven attractive to wealthy investors looking to transfer assets.
But Peter Harker, partner at consultants Saffery, says this is often just one reason why private investors buy vineyards. “I would say that is a factor. “It’s a bonus, but it’s not the reason people do it.”