New English sparkling launched among consolidation concerns

As another English sparkling wine launch is planned for the UK market, are concerns of a bottleneck within the emergent industry justified?

Digby Fine English sparkling will be officially launched on 30 July. Photo credit: robinsfoodanddrinkblog.co.uk

A new label, called Digby Fine English, will release a 2009 vintage brut and rosé in August with a RRP of £32 and £35 respectively, using Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay grapes sourced from a range of growers within England.

Beginning with a production of 10,000 bottles, the sparkling wine has been created by Trevor Clough, a former corporate strategist and wine enthusiast, with Dermot Sugrue, winemaker at Wiston Estate Winery in West Sussex.

In charge of marketing for the new brand, which is designed to be typically English – “with flashes of wit and a respect for the past” – is Lee Sargent, who was previously Pepsico’s European marketing director.

However, there are fears among those who have been working in the English sparkling wine industry for over a decade that the recent explosion of plantings and producers, often making similar sparkling wines at similar price points, will create an excess.

Indeed, in September last year, English winemaker and Wine Skills training mentor David Cowderoy warned that oversupply was a concern when addressing attendees of an English sparkling wine seminar.

“There are a growing number of producers and a finite number of retailers, and that will produce a bottleneck,” he said at the event, which was organised by the Institute of Masters of Wine.

He also expressed fears that these new players were all “following the same format” based on a small estate of around 5-10 hectares producing sparkling wine from Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, with a planned selling price of £25.

“They will find it increasingly difficult to find a point of difference,” he stated.

Such a viewpoint was echoed more recently at another English sparkling wine seminar held at this year’s London International Wine Fair.

“There are so many brands entering the English sparkling wine market that they need distinct positions,” said Frazer Thompson, chief executive of Chapel down in Kent.

“One of those is price but there is huge crowding at £25-30 a bottle, and I don’t think that’s where the growth will be,” he continued.

Speaking of the UK market, he added, “Something like 80% of Champagne is sold at under £25 a bottle and most English sparkling is priced at £25 a bottle or more… I think in five years time there will be consolidation.”

Further outlining his concerns for many of the recent English sparkling wine start-ups he stated, “Most business plans are based on selling the same amount as Perrier-Jouët at the same price in the next 7-8 years and that’s not going to happen.”

He also forecast that “probably another 20 brands are going to hit the market over the next 20 years” before listing who he thought were currently strong English sparkling wine brands. “This market has good brands, such as ourselves, Ridgeview, Balfour Brut, Camel Valley and Gusbourne Estate,” he said.

Presenting a more positive outlook however was Mark Driver, founder of Rathfinny Estate in Sussex, who believes there is potential to sell significantly more English sparkling wine in bars and restaurants in the UK and worldwide.

“I am very disappointed that English sparkling wine is not more widely available in London restaurants,” he began.

Continuing he said that producers need to do more to gain listings in the UK on-trade but also key wine importing export markets, noting that “English products sell particularly well overseas”.

“My aim for 2020 is to walk into a bar in New York or Beijing and the barman to ask, ‘would you like a glass of Champagne, or would you like a glass of Sussex, and I recommend the Rathfinny,” he said.

Finally, among other suggestions to buoy the demand for English sparkling wine was more investment in wine tourism.

Frazer describe tourism as “critical” to the success of Chapel Down, which attracts 50,000 visitors to its centre in Kent every year, while Driver said that Rathfinny Estate would be opening a tasting room for tourists in the Sussex village of Alfriston in October this year.