The English sparkling wine industry is proving a major player in the global market, with one its success stories announcing a bumper year for exports.

Chapel Down is renowned for the quality of its produce, with the Kent vineyard reporting a 164 per cent increase in exports in 2022 with the firm putting its success down to the ‘premiumisation’ of its wines: a record sales figure of 790,000 bottles was registered despite an overall price increase of around 19 per cent.

While the wider industry grew by nine per cent, Chapel Down sales increased by 23 per cent, with the firm’s CEO, Andrew Carter, revealing it is on target to “double the size of the business by 2026” – overall sales jumped by ten per cent to £15.6million (€17.7million).

With temperatures in the south of England increasing year on year, the wine harvests from England are improving year on year, with Andrew Carter saying: “This performance, and the excellent harvest we enjoyed in 2022, means we carry momentum into 2023 and are on track to meet our target of doubling the size of our business by 2026.”

The quality of the English wine harvest is clearly being noted in France, with renowned Champagne house Taittinger currently working on plans to sell a range of both sparkling and non-sparkling wines from its own 69-hectare vineyard in Kent, beginning next year.