London and Home Counties lead English wine sales

Sales of English wine jumped by 16% at Naked Wines in the past 12 months, to July 2017, with London and the Home Counties 10 times more likely to drink home-grown wine than the rest of the country, according to the online retailer.

An English sparkling wine vineyard planted with Pinot Noir at harvest time, basking in autumnal sunshine.

Founded in 2008, Naked Wines is a crowd-funded wine retailer which see its “angels” contribute a sum each month which is then invested in a wine producer in return for exclusive deals on their wines and wholesale prices. The company was bought by Majestic in 2015.

The positive performance of English wine among its consumers in the past year has led the merchant to commit to investing a further £1m in supporting new English winemakers.

English wine has proved most popular with Londoners and those living in the Home Counties, where many of the country’s vineyards are located, who are 10 times more likely to choose English wines than the rest of the country. Interestingly Lancashire proved to be the ninth biggest consumer of English wines from Naked, the only region outside of southern England to appear in its top 10 list of English wine-consuming counties.

Sales in these counties account for 51% of all Naked Wines English sparkling wine sales in the UK. Naked Wines’ best-selling English fizz is Old Winchester Hill Blanc de Blancs NV from the Hampshire vineyard of ex-banker Ian Kellett.

“As a crowd-funded wine business, we invest where our customers tell us to, so it’s fantastic to see English fizz now bubbling over as one of their favourites,” said Eamon FitzGerald, MD of Naked Wines UK.

Naked Wine’s top 10 counties for English wine

“People are voting with their taste buds, backing British businesses and winemakers pursuing their dreams. This has given us the confidence to commit £1m of investment into English wine. We’re very proud to be backing Britain.”

One of the biggest wine success stories in recent years, the English wine industry grew its turnover by 16% last year to a record high of £132 million, having nearly trebled over the last five years from £55.7 million in 2011.

Earlier this year, The United Kingdom Vineyards Association (UKVA) and English Wine Producers (EWP) voted to merge to form one single-industry representative body called UK Wine Producers.

The new organisation will promote, represent and support all UK wine producers and vineyards, irrespective of their size in dealings with the government and other national and international organisations.