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The bumper harvest in England means that not all grapes can be vinified, as the size of the wineries has not kept up with the rapid growth in area. There were already reports of a surplus during the large 2018 harvest. Since then, the area under vines in England and Wales has grown by 74 per cent to 3,928 hectares, according to industry body Wine GB.
Many winegrowers deliver their grapes to contract wineries. However, their capacities have stagnated since Brexit, as the EU took over up to 40 percent of the costs for equipment, tasting rooms and wine tourism facilities. These funds have been inadequately replaced and the approval procedures are very bureaucratic. Nevertheless, new capacities are now being created to be able to process more grapes.
Especially grape producers who had not concluded fixed purchase contracts would now not be able to sell the entire harvest. There are 800 vineyards in England, but only 200 wineries. In 2022, 12 million bottles were produced, but sales fell from 9.3 million to 8 million bottles.
(al / source: harpers.co.uk)