The English wine business
10,000 acres of vines | 1,000 vineyards | 200 wineries
The UK wine industry is booming - with over 4,000 hectares (c. 10,000 acres) of vines now in active production across a thousand vineyards. More than 200 wineries are now in operation - together producing nearly nine million bottles of wine in 2023. Compare this to 2018 when production totalled a little over three million bottles, and you get an idea of the pace of change.
The market continues to be dominated by sparkling wine - accounting for around three quarters of all UK production. The heartland of English wine continues to be the South Downs; in Hampshire, Sussex and Kent.
Those chalky hills near England’s south coast - increasingly well known as the geological cousin to France’s Champagne region - also happen to be where the Blackdown team were born, raised, live and work today.
We’ve had an insider’s perspective on this booming industry with close friends working at prestigious Sussex vineyards (before they were famous). We see more vines springing up on agricultural land around us every season - the vine planting frenzy has far from abated in recent years.
The south facing slopes of southern England have brought with them not just fertile ground for planting grapevines, but other business opportunities too - from food and hospitality ventures to gin making and tourism.
Blackdown’s experience:
Short of capital for our own commercial gin still, we launched a tonic water business a decade ago - co-founded with an English wine industry veteran - building an excellent network, especially amongst UK winemakers diversifying into gin production
From direct-to-consumer e-commerce sales to working through distributors to build on-trade business - we’ve built a drinks business with close ties to English wine producers, and done it with our own money - let us save you time and money by learning from the mistakes we made in everything from branding and packaging design to outsourced production, sales strategy, marketing and much more besides
We’ve got several years of experience working in export promotion, (with a particularly strong network in the Nordic markets) including with food and drink sector specialists - get in touch to talk to a seasoned team who know from experience exactly what it takes to grow sales internationally and build your brand abroad
Through our network we also have strong connections to a broad spectrum of the wine industry supply chain - from cork producers and frost protection solutions to biodiversity & pollinator monitoring tech!
Associated services:
Sales, marketing and business development across the drinks sector
International sales and export promotion - strategy and implementation
Consulting - our network runs the full gamut, we can assist with all aspects of establishing / growing UK wine businesses
Vineyard biodiversity monitoring - soil health, baseline surveying, BNG, device selection and prototyping
Relevant for:
Vineyard owner | Landowner | Head Winemaker | Head of Viticulture | Head of Sales | Head of Marketing | International Sales | Head of Brand | Trade Marketing Manager
Sources: Wine GB - Industry Report 2022-23, Press Release, Industry Data