Waitrose has today announced that it will be the first UK retailer to plant vines in England. The vines will be planted in the next year on the retailers own 4,000 acre farm, The Leckford Estate, in Hampshire. Customers will need to be patient though, as the planned wine, a sparkling, will not debut on the shelves at Waitrose until 2014.
The trend towards English wine has rocketed in the last two years and has now gained an excellent reputation both at home and internationally. In 2007 Waitrose reported a growth in sales of over 90% however there is simply not enough English wine to meet customer demand – sales growth is outstripping not only supply, but the historical growth of vineyard planting.
“To ensure our customers can continue to enjoy English wine in the future we are investing now to cope with future growth. It is a long term project – the vines will need three years before we see the first crop of grapes, and then a two year wine-making and maturation cycle for the production of this high quality sparkling wine.
Justin Howard-Sneyd, MW – English wine buyer for Waitrose said: “Our customers are really enthusiastic about English wines and we have seen some fantastic quality from Nyetimber, Ridgeview, Chapel Down, Camel Valley and Denbies. We are all incredibly excited about being involved with the planting and growing of our first vineyard. In addition to the Estate sparkling wine, the vineyard also provides an opportunity to connect our Wine Specialists to the production cycle of the vineyard, and to enhance their education about how wine is made”
The Leckford Estate is located on gently rolling chalk hills either side of the River Test. There are several sites with a sheltered southern aspect where the soils have just the right balance of chalk and clay loam for our grapevines. In fact many of the soils of southern England are from the same geological strata as soils in classic regions of Northern France such as Chablis and Champagne.
