‘Vintage to remember’: UK produces biggest ever grape harvest | Food & drink industry

British vineyards have hauled in their greatest ever grape harvest as a “near perfect year” for weather combined with more land in production.

The industry is expecting to produce up to 22m bottles of wine this year, almost twice the 12.2m last year, according to the WineGB trade body.

That is thanks to a grape harvest 50% bigger than the last record haul five years ago. Yields per hectare almost doubled on 2022 to 9.6 tonnes, from 5 last year and the previous high of 7.1 in 2018.

The amount of land in production is also up – by 170 hectares (420 acres) year on year to 3,400, which is 1,200 hectares ahead of 2018.

Nicola Bates, WineGB chief executive, said: “There was a silver lining to our miserable summer, and that is a fantastic season for wine. UK consumers are drinking more and more home produce and at the same time exports are going up especially in the Nordics and Japan.”

Most production goes to sparkling wines, which will not be available for at least two years, but still wines made this year could be on shelves in the spring.

Stephen Skelton, the author of a report into the harvest titled The Big One added: “2023 will be a vintage to remember. The excellent yields are attributed to not only the near perfect weather for grapes at key times of the growing season, but also comes on the back of more hectares than ever before coming into production, having seen nearly 75% growth in plantings in the last five years alone.”

While wet weather delayed new planting for some, the lack of frost at key times across most of the country, warm June, wet August and hot September all contributed to a heavy crop.

The highest yields were achieved in the drier and warmer regions: East Anglia, south-east England and Wessex (Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, Isle of Wight).

Britain’s winemaking industry is concentrated in Kent, but vineyards in Essex, Hampshire and Sussex also supply independent retailers and UK supermarkets.

The industry has also upped investment in technology with 13% of vineyards machine harvested compared with 7% in 2022, making up for some problems with recruiting workers. Last year 90% of vineyards got the number of pickers they wanted – that dropped to 87% this year.

Investment in the last five years has led to a substantial increase in vine plantings. There are now 943 vineyards across Great Britain, according to WineGB. The 22m bottles produced this year is a big step up on the 5.3m bottles in 2017 as investors have piled into the growing market.

About 7,600 hectares of vines are expected to be planted by 2032 – almost double the 4,000 hectares planted at present – some of which have yet to come into production.

Winemakers have been expanding as financial investors bet on a market that has been helped by the changing climate and more professional production techniques.

Michael Spencer, the former Conservative party treasurer and founder of financial group Nex, previously known as Icap, owns almost 30% of Chapel Down. Eric Heerema, a former lawyer and asset manager, owns its biggest rival, Nyetimber, while the ex-banker Nicholas Coates founded the sparkling wine maker Coates and Seely.

Chapel Down, one of the UK’s biggest winemakers, which listed on the Aim junior stock market earlier this month, said it had delivered a record 3,811 tonnes of grapes this year, 86% higher than 2022. It said the harvest “exceeded our expectations on quality, as well as being both a record-breaking yield and tonnage”.

Gusbourne, the Kent-based producer and one of the first major wineries to complete its harvest, said it had gathered its largest ever crop, up 25% on last year.