Boom times for English wine: latest figures from WineGB

OK stats geeks, here are the latest figures from WineGB, showing the extent of growth of the UK wine production scene. It wasn’t so long ago that the prophets of doom were predicting boom to bust. Well, despite the significant increases in plantings, things still seem to be booming.

Area under vine has more than doubled in just eight years, and more than quadrupled since 2000, and now stands at approximately 3758 hectares. This doesn’t include 2022 plantings which are estimated to be another 300-400 hectares. This takes the figure to over 4000 hectares.

Sales by year:

  • 2021: 9.3m bottles
  • 2020: 7.1m bottles
  • 2019: 5.5m bottles

2020 sales breakdown:
Cellar door = 28%
Winery websites = 22%
UK on-trade = 18%
Independent retail = 15%
Off-trade (national accounts) = 13%

Exports = 4%

There are a total of 66 grape varieties planted in the UK. The Top 10 varieties planted by hectare:

  • Chardonnay 1179
  • Pinot Noir 1164 (This includes 63ha of Frühburgunder / Pinot Noir Précoce)
  • Pinot Meunier 327
  • Bacchus 264
  • Seyval Blanc 117
  • Solaris 93
  • Reichensteiner 69
  • Rondo 60
  • Pinot Gris 56
  • Müller-Thurgau 46

In the past five years, plantings of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier have amounted to 1,343ha out of total plantings of 1,646ha, which equates to 82% of all plantings. The next most planted varieties in the past five years are:

  • Bacchus 75 ha
  • Solaris 56 ha
  • Pinot Gris 20 ha
  • Seyval Blanc 24 ha

Plantings by year:

  • 2018: 1.6m vines planted
  • 2019: 3m vines planted
  • 2020: 1.4m vines planted
  • 2021: 1.6m vines planted

Production by year:

  • 2021: 8.95m bottles
  • 2020: 8.7m bottles
  • 2019: 10.5m bottles
  • 2018: 13.2m bottles