The French Interest in English Sparkling Wine

The performance of English sparkling wine hasn’t gone unnoticed by the French. For years, rumours have abounded that big-name Champagne producers are ‘soon to be’ buying up land on the English side of the Channel.

To date, however, just one Champagne producer from France, Didier Pierson and his English wife Imogen, has bought land in the UK (in the Meon Valley in Hampshire). However, Julia Trustram Eve, spokesperson for English Wine Producers, the marketing association of the English wine industry, reports that ‘there may be something in the pipeline’ early in 2007, with a major Champagne house on the lookout for English grape-growing land.



With or without the French, plantings of English vineyard are increasing. According to Trustram Eve, 500 acres were planted to vines between 2005 and 2006, "a substantial part of which will be used to make sparkling wine".