Brexit puts sparkle into English fizz
Leaving the EU could give our wine growers a major boost, finds Harry Yorke
When Richard Balfour-Lynn planted his first vineyard in 2001, the term “English wine” was still an oxymoron. Unpalatable and unfashionable, sparkling whites made from British grapes were limited in quantity, questionably sweet and seldom appeared at parties, let alone on the menu of any restaurant worth recommending.
But today, as he sits down to toast Hush Heath Estate’s 15th anniversary with a bottle of Balfour Brut Rosé (a 2004 vintage), the circumstances are palpably different.
“It’s been an excellent couple of years for us,” Balfour-Lynn says, as we stand surveying the acres of unsullied vineyards and apple orchards that make up his family estate. “Ten years ago, English wine was just a hobby for everyone, really, but now we’re on the cusp of something very promising.”
Since winning gold at the International Wine Challenge in 2007, the first English producer to do so, Richard, a former London hotelier, has seen Hush Heath’s reputation achieve lift-off. “We tasted our first batch of wine on Christmas Day 2004,” he says. “Back then, we knew we had something special. But now, we’re looking at a business for which there is a real international appetite.”
It’s now 100 days since Britain voted for Brexit, and wine producers have real cause for celebration. The largest shipment of English wine to America is currently making its way from Southampton across the Atlantic, to be stocked by retailers and restaurants from New York to Los Angeles. Joining three other wine producers in an investment containing some 5,000 bottles, Balfour-Lynn’s American venture forms part of an ambitious plan to increase English wine exports to overseas markets tenfold by 2020.
“There’s always been a special relationship between Americans and English brands,” Balfour-Lynn says. “That’s why they’re so receptive to our sparkling varieties.”
If financial markets were rattled by the result of the European referendum, in Kent, an hour’s drive south of the City of London, amid the straddling vines of chardonnay and pinot meunier growing on BalfourLynn’s estate, it’s a different tale. “The devaluation of sterling has actually helped our nonEuropean trade tremendously,” he says. “It’s an industry still in its infancy; the Government now has the flexibility to help English producers by cutting duties on our wine, so that we are no longer in a situation whereby we pay the same as European competitors to sell in our own market. The fact that the onus now is on forging closer relations with markets in America and Asia – our two biggest export markets – can only help us.” Set on 400 acres, Hush Heath is a model of old- meets-new; where state-of-the-art irrigation systems lend a freshness and complexity found only in grapes grown traditionally, according to the proper méthode champenoise.
“Everything we do here is local,” Balfour-Lynn explains. “Our vineyards are looked after by a local family, and have been since we started. They’re incredibly passionate and proud about what they’re growing – it’s what gives us and other producers in England a unique edge. As grower champagnes continue to become devalued through mass production and a lack of attention to detail, our wines are now at parity, or pushing towards it.”
Earlier this year, a bottle of Nyetimber Classic Cuvée, from West Sussex, beat French champagne in a blind taste test in Paris, a feat hailed by
Noble Rot magazine as England’s coming of age – “a Zut alors moment”.
But this fast-fizzle to the top, says Balfour-Lynn, could be threatened by the increasing popularity of a cut-price competitor: British wine.
British wine arrives on the south coast in drums containing up to 20,000 litres of low-quality grape must, where it is then unloaded and sent for fermentation in industrialsized plants operating across the country. The end result – a glass of light fruity liquid that can be labelled as “wine” thanks to the EU’s agricultural laws – has rapidly burgeoned into a £240 million industry. For quality producers, this loophole is a serious headache.
“There’s nothing ‘British’ about it,” Balfour-Lynn argues. “Our customers in Japan or America don’t know the difference when buying a bottle, but there are obviously substantial differences in quality and taste. Should they have a bad experience, it could put them off English wine. This is all about quality control – customers buying a product masquerading as something it patently is not.”
It is here that Brexit could be a saving grace. Just as French wines enjoy appellation d’origine contrôlée under French law, members of the English Wine Producers Association are now asking the Government to give them parallel status. This, Balfour-Lynn believes, begins by revoking the “British” designation enjoyed by their discount competitors.
“A wine’s quality centres entirely on how it is cultivated and the climate it is grown in. Thanks to Brexit, our opportunity to address the issue has finally arrived.”
‘As champagnes are devalued through mass production, our wines are at parity’