Agincourt, Waterloo, Sparkling Wine: English fizz makes further inroads into champagne lead
English sparkling wines are catching up rapidly with French champagne, with the former category’s market leader Chapel Down hailing a “landmark” year for the variety and the vineyard.
Off-trade champagne sales declined 9 per cent on the year, with English sparkling retail sales up 16 per cent.
The Kent vineyard maintained its market leadership, with more than 35 per cent of off-trade bottles sold, with value growth of 25 per cent on its core products.
Revenue hit £17.9m across the year, a 14 per cent uplift on 2022.
The listed vineyard, part-owned by City grandee Lord Michael Spencer, also saw on-trade sales up 26 per cent thanks to more bars and restaurants offering the English sparkling by the glass.
Exports were up two-thirds driven largely by increased sales at duty free.
Boss Andrew Carter said this morning: “Chapel Down is the market leader in an industry which is enjoying rapid and sustained growth, we have the strongest and most recognised brand, the deepest distribution which we continue to expand at pace, and we continue to win international acclaim for the quality of our wines.”
The company was admitted to the London Stock Exchange’s AIM at the back end of last year.
Last year saw Chapel Down lean into the battle with the traditional French powerhouse.
The vineyard held a blind tasting in Reims – the heart of France’s hallowed champagne region – in the summer, in which their ‘Chapelle Du Bas’ came out ahead of a well-known French house.
“2023 was a landmark year for English Wine and Chapel Down, and it is great to see the strategic and operational progress that we have delivered, and the continuing sales momentum we have. In line with our 2023 targets, the business achieved double digit net sales revenue growth, driven by the exceptional performance of our traditional method sparkling wine and with growth across all our UK & International trade channels and our Direct-to-Consumer business,” Carter said.