Blast of the summer vine in the UK: English wine growth continues

Climate change has been impacting grape-growing globally, but as predicted English wine producers have become the winners of warming temperatures. Turnover at the biggest producers of English wine has grown by 15% in the past year, which itself follows a three-fold rise in the past half-a-decade, according to new data from accountants UHY Hacker Young. Particularly benefiting have been the well-established vineyards in the south of the country, across the Sussex and Kent chalklands, which producers are keen to stress is the same bedrock as found in Champagne and the north of France. But in the past weather has hampered investment in English vineyards, with the infamous British temperate climate holding back capital investment. Yet higher crop yields from more reliable and warmer weather, and a concerted movement by farmers and agricultural businesses towards grape-growing, has driven investors into the sector. As a result, the English wine world is now in a state of flux, as first ...