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Taittinger was the first major brand champagne house to start planting vines on British soil. This is reported by the English media.
In a joint venture with the British wine trading agency Hatch Mansfield, Taittinger had purchased around 70 hectares of arable land near Chilham in the county of Kent in 2015 and founded the Domaine Evremont there. At the beginning of May, the vine planting now started: Initially, 20 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier are to be planted, as reported by the magazine Drinks International. Over the next three years, the area under vines will then be expanded to 40 hectares.
Taittinger President Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger told Drinks International: "We were very impressed with the quality of the English sparkling wines currently being produced and we believe that the combination of limestone soils, climate and topography of our Kent site is ideal for producing high quality sparkling wines" Patrick McGrath, Managing Director of Hatch Mansfield, told the magazine: "Our ultimate goal is to produce 300,000 bottles of premium English sparkling wine annually, but this will not be possible for at least six years, as the vines will need time to reach the stage of development where they can produce the required quantity of grapes of the required quality. That will be his ongoing process."
In 2023, the first sparkling wine from the Domaine Evremont should be on the market after at least three years of maturation.