I do enjoy a glass of champagne but I often wish I could substitute the experience with English varietals, especially those grown by friends. It’s been a struggle.
Growing pains are increasingly evident in the English sparkling wine industry. As with all aspirational consumer products the hype can easily get ahead of itself. It’s all too often a rich person’s folly, with micro vineyards increasingly popping up all over the southern English countryside in the past decade as the latest show-off toy.
But national pride can only take it so far. More than two-thirds of U.K. wine production is fizz. There are over 200 vineyards producing over 12 million bottles but the average size is just 1.6 hectares. The Champagne region produces more than 300 million bottles per year, with houses such as LVMH’s Moet & Chandon selling 30 million alone.
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