Say cheers to a cheeky little red, all the way from Wolverhampton
It is not, perhaps, where many would expect to find the future of the British wine industry, but a site nine miles south-west of Wolverhampton might just be the place.
At the Halfpenny Green wine estate in Staffordshire, some 3,000 vines are producing a new variety of grape that the country’s major winegrowers are hoping will transform British viticulture.
The divico grape, imported from Switzerland, is not for making sparkling wine, which accounts for about 70% of all wine produced in England and Wales. Rather, it is to make a fullbodied red, which even the most optimistic, or perhaps deluded, enthusiasts for British wine have until now considered impossible.
“We didn’t put Britain’s first divico vineyard in without a great deal of thought,” said the estate’s founder, Martin Vickers, who has been making wine in Staffordshire for 36 years.
He first learned of the variety when attending a cool-climate wine symposium three years ago, and was impressed with its potential on a visit to Switzerland, where it has been developed as a hybrid variety over the past 15 years.
Halfpenny, which planted the vines last year and expects to sell the first bottles of its new wine in 2022, is part of a consortium of producers in England, including Bolney Wine Estate, Nyetimber, Chapel Down and Gusbourne, which are backing trials of the grape being conducted by the horticultural research organisation, NIAB EMR, at Britain’s only research vineyard in East Malling, Kent.
“Red wine accounts for only 5% of the UK’s current production, but we believe divico now offers strong commercial prospects by producing quality red wines,” said Dr Julien Lecourt, head of viticulture and wine research and development at NIAB EMR.
Divico is attractive to British growers because it flowers in early June – late enough to avoid frosts and when temperatures are higher, allowing optimal pollination, improved yield and quality. Crucially, it is also naturally resistant to many diseases affecting grape crops, in particular powdery mildew.
Other grape varieties used to make red wines have been trialled in England before. Some pinot noir wines have performed well in recent global tasting competitions. But Vickers was dubious as to whether these would really take off. “A lot of the English pinot noirs I’ve tasted are lacking in depth and colour and they are a little bit light. I don’t think pinot noir in England is ever going to do it.”
However, he is more enthusiastic about the Swiss import. “Just imagine if you could consistently produce a fullbodied red wine from England – there
would be a huge market for it and this is the variety that could do it.”
Vickers will take a decision on whether to plant more divico vines in around 18 months’ time. But already the early results look promising. Lecourt said tastings of last year’s harvest in the Kent pilot, which involves collecting large volumes of data on the molecular structure of the grape to help understand its sugar content and acidity, had been encouraging.
“We identified a very nice silky texture; the tannins are soft, like a good burgundy,” Lecourt said. “It’s got a very nice structure and the mouth was brilliant; you get very ripe fruits, like black cherry.”
This year, the harvest was pushed back a little later, resulting in a wine of greater complexity, said Lecourt, adding that the grape could be used to produce a range of different wines. “Do we want something more gamay-like, like a good beaujolais, or do we want something more like a syrah or beaujolais nouveau?”
The UK wine industry is growing rapidly. There are now more than 500 vineyards and 164 wineries operating in Britain. English and Welsh wines are exported to 40 countries, and the area under vine in the UK has increased by 160% in the past 10 years to 7,000 acres.
A record 3m vines were planted this year – almost double the number planted the previous year. At the current rate of growth, it is predicted that the UK could be producing 40m bottles by 2040.
However chardonnay, pinot noir, pinot meunier and bacchus – varieties that feature predominantly in sparkling and white wine – still account for threequarters of all plantings in Britain, and most vineyards are located in the south of England.
The introduction of the divico grape, however, could give succour to vineyards in more northern parts of the British Isles.
“There are at least 100 vineyards north of us,” Vickers said. “There’s 10 in Yorkshire alone.”
If you could consistently produce a full-bodied red wine from England, there would be a huge market for it
Julien Lecourt