‘Serving to with the Domaine Evremond acquisition in 2015 modified my profession. Taittinger’s UK importer referenced our firm by identify within the press launch that went out to wine media, and Pierre-Emanuel Taittinger gave a speech at Westminster Abbey the place he thanked folks vital to the deal, together with my agency. It created a wave.
‘On the time English wine was nonetheless the underdog of the glowing wine world. Folks within the know had been conscious of the standard of the wines, and of the potential. However for a model like Champagne Taittinger to purchase land within the UK was a mass-market information story, a landmark occasion that cemented in a public approach the truth that English wine was superb.
‘The location in Chilham, Kent suited their wants completely. They’re evangelical about chalk, and it has the fitting chalky soils. It has excessive growing-season temperatures, and low rainfall. And it was a freehold acquisition.
‘Till the late 2010s, your typical purchaser of an English winery had loved a high-paying Metropolis profession, and wished to retire to a winery within the nation, as a ardour undertaking. Then in 2018 I seen the varieties of consumers had been altering.
‘I used to be promoting a winery for an English vineyard, after I was approached by a fund specialising in luxurious belongings. I realised there was an enormous alternative in English wine and that I wanted to upskill. I took myself off to do an MBA, in order that I may advise on M&A-format transactions – and it was the most effective enterprise choice I ever made. These had been an rising market on the time, however are actually extra widespread than land and property transactions, and I’m fortunate to be in the course of all of it.
‘Any profitable M&A deal must be a strategic acquisition. The purchaser must have one thing they will carry to boost the present standing of the enterprise. Take the acquisition of Bolney Property by Freixenet, and that of Hambledon by Berry Bros & Rudd and Symington. In each instances, the purchasers supplied improbable new routes to market.
‘I by no means predicted that English wine would take off in the way in which that it has. I initially moved into land administration as a result of we now have a household property in Wales. I deliberate to get the coaching as a land agent then go house and run the household property. However I discovered a job that I used to be so enthusiastic about. I get to work with a few of the brightest minds within the Metropolis who’ve moved into viticulture – Richard Balfour Lynn [of Hush Heath Estate], as an example.
‘We’re the one property agency with a devoted winery workforce. Our fundamental focus in the intervening time is looking for good purchasers, to work out what they’re in search of – to get below the bonnet of their search standards – after which to match them with a enterprise that might swimsuit their wants, do the introductions, due diligence and so forth.
‘A method during which we discover purchasers is to ask brokers to ahead on the small print of unsuccessful bidders when a vineyard sells. There’s a gentleman’s settlement between brokers that we glance after one another. We even have a mailing listing detailing alternatives – it’s free to subscribe, however it’s important to declare whether or not you’re a wine producer, an fanatic or a possible investor. We’re about to begin a WhatsApp group for potential traders, too.
‘Location is clearly vital to purchasers. Some homeowners don’t wish to journey removed from house. Others are eager on sure demographics of an space. Surrey, as an example, is a county with a excessive common family revenue – wineries right here have a ready-made buyer base on their doorstep. Others have romantic geological beliefs, and wish to give attention to Sussex or Kent’s North Downs, maybe. Typically folks will compromise on location in the event that they love an current model.
‘However there are different components at play too. Some purchasers wish to personal a vineyard however not run it, which implies specializing in these with a administration workforce in place. Some purchasers need a cellar-door enterprise, others don’t. It’s value spending the money and time to get the fitting winery within the first place.
‘The primary curiosity will all the time be within the southeast, and its pretty county agnostic – Kent, Sussex and Hampshire. Kent in all probability provides essentially the most flexibility of the three, because it’s the driest of the three counties. There’s additionally curiosity in Crouch Valley, Essex, due to the curiosity round Burgundian-style nonetheless wine.
‘We acted for the seller when California’s Jackson Household Wines purchased there in 2023, the primary US enterprise to enter the English wine business.
‘I really feel like we now have reached a plateau in land costs. Between 2018 and 2022, manufacturing elevated massively, and land costs jumped from £15,000 to £20-22,000 an acre. Now all that fruit is coming onstream in wine. There was an enormous crop in 2023, on high of beneficiant vintages in 2018 and 2019. Many wineries are actually trying to promote or hire vineyards, and there are good offers to be executed renting vines from wineries trying to scale back their manufacturing.
‘There’s a present imbalance between overproduction and low gross sales, and we’re serving to wine producers to supply video content material and embed e-commerce inside that. One of many gross sales channels that’s underutilised is e-commerce, and a part of my job is to assist companies develop. Promoting by e-commerce provides wineries a better margin, and it’s one instance of how the English wine sector is evolving.’
