Sales of fizz are sparkling for Midlands vineyard
Sparkling wine and champagne sales in the UK hit a record level in 2018 – and one vineyard in the Midlands is among those cashing in.
Halfpenny Green Wine Estate at Bobbington, between Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth, is still basking in the glow of a long hot summer that brought a bumper crop to harvest.
UK-wide figures from the Wine and Spirit Trade Association show that nearly 165 million bottles were snapped up.
The sales topped £2 billion in value, with £1.5bn – 146m bottles – accounted for by sparkling wine.
Fizz sales are almost double what they were in 2013 when £1.2bn was generated.
The popularity of sparkling wine has come as a welcome boost to the English wine industry and with last summer's heatwave creating near-perfect growing conditions, sales are expected to rise in 2019.
Last year around 5.8m bottles of English and Welsh wine were produced with the figure expected to top six million this year.
Halfpenny Green Wine Estate produces salmon pink Brut, rosé and red varieties of sparkling wine, with Marks & Spencer currently selling the pink.
Owner and wine producer Clive Vickers said: "We enjoyed a record harvest last year with 14 weeks of perfect weather from Easter making it fantastic. We will produce 100,000 bottles as a result in 2019
"Probably a quarter of our production goes to sparkling now. The sparkling from the 2018 harvest won't be available until May 2020 though.
"Our sales of sparkling are picking up year on year, partly down to winning awards. We sold 20,000 last year and expect to be doing 25,000 to 30,000 over the next 12 months
The 30 acres of vineyards at Halfpenny Green were originally planted in 1983.
WSTA chief executive Miles Beale said UK consumers had a far greater range to choose from than ever before and 2018 had been a "sparkling success" for English wine makers.
