Britain’s biggest winemaker uncorks a record-breaking year as chief executive James Pennefather sticks to his audacious target of capturing 1 per cent of the global champagne market by 2035.
Chapel Down, Britain’s largest winemaker, has sold more than a million bottles of English sparkling wine in a single year for the first time, a watershed moment in its bid to seize 1 per cent of the global champagne market by 2035.
The Kent-based producer, listed on London’s junior Aim market and backed by the billionaire Lord Spencer of Alresford, said the million-bottle haul equates to roughly 0.4 per cent of champagne’s worldwide market share. James Pennefather, who took the helm as chief executive last year, expects that figure to climb to 0.7 per cent by the end of the decade.
Pennefather said the company’s long-term ambition was anchored in the available acreage across its native Kent. “We certainly do have options to get there faster, but it also slightly depends on what happens to the wider champagne market,” he said.
While champagne has historically been the preserve of formal celebrations, Pennefather argued that English sparkling wine was redrawing the boundaries of the category. “One of the real strengths of Chapel Down and English sparkling wine is that we’ve expanded the number of occasions on which people are drinking high-value sparkling wines,” he said. “That gives us confidence that we are also expanding the category as a whole.”
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