Joe Duggan (Reporter)
ENGLISH wine has been voted the fourth best in the world ahead of Spain, New Zealand and South Africa.
A survey of 2,000 drinkers for trade publication The Grocer showed 11% prefer an English bottle of plonk, with French the most popular at 36% and 15% preferring Italian.
Only 7% of those surveyed opted for Spanish wine, with experts expecting English wine to surge in popularity in the coming years.
“I expect England to climb the ratings as English wines continues to grow and more consumers are surprised and delighted by the quality of our home-grown produce,” said Mark Harvey from Chapel Down, one of the UK’s biggest homegrown producers.
English wine makes up just 1% of the UK’s wine market with more than half of British drinkers admitting they have never tried it.
I think the reason why many Brits haven’t tried English wine is that most is prohibitively expensive compared to overseas wines. Chapel Down I’ve tried but quite easy to spend 3 times or more the price per bottle of a good Spanish or new World wine. Lots of small vineyards in Kent, Sussex and rest of South of England, and all expensive.
Unless prices come down, it will never sell in high volumes