A French champagne house is to make history by producing an English sparkling wine.

Champagne Taittinger has bought land near Chilham, Kent where it plans to make wine in partnership with UK wine company Hatch Mansfield.

“It’s great news and very symbolic – the first time a champagne name has invested in Great Britain,” Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of Champagne Taittinger, told The Telegraph this morning. “We’re doing it in a spirit of great friendship and because we believe we can produce a great sparkling wine in your great country.”

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Taittinger’s new vineyards will be on the site of what is currently an apple and plum orchard between Canterbury and Ashford in Kent. The champagne house has bought 69 hectares of land from the Gaskain family at Stone Stile Farm and intends to begin planting chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier on south-facing slopes in 2017.

The move represents the latest declaration of confidence in English sparkling wine. Just 20 years ago, the industry lacked credibility but the determination, investment and hard work of a few pioneers has transformed England into one of the fastest-rising wine regions on the planet.

AU REVOIR, CHAMPAGNE: THESE DAYS, ENGLISH FIZZ IS IN DEMAND Credit: Harala Hamilton

“We looked for vineyards in Hampshire and Sussex too,” says Patrick McGrath, MD of Hatch Mansfield. “When we first started this venture we consulted English viticultural expert Stephen Skelton, who said, ‘Look for chalk, look for land that’s less than 100m above sea level, and look for a site that’s sheltered – that’s really crucial.’ We ended up in Kent – the garden of England, where some of the best fruit is grown.”

McGrath says the genesis of the project came three years ago when Hatch Mansfield, Taittinger’s UK importer, was considering getting involved in English sparkling wine production.

“I’ve been very impressed, tasting English sparkling wine, over the last few years. We felt we had missed out on the prosecco boom by getting there too late but saw English wine as a real opportunity. I felt Hatch Mansfield needed to take it seriously. I’d already had a few conversations with Stephen Skelton when Pierre-Emmanuel came over. We tasted some of the best English wines – Nyetimber, Gusbourne and so on – and he immediately said, ‘Let’s do something together.’”

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Green and pleasant land: Nyetimber, one of the pioneering English vineyards Credit: Charmaine Greiger

The new wine estate will be called Domaine Evremond. The name comes from bon viveur, soldier and essayist Charles de Saint-Evremond (1614-1703) who is buried at Westminster Abbey and is credited with fuelling the popularity of champagne in the court of Charles II.

Champagne Taittinger is the majority (55 per cent) shareholder in the venture, with Hatch Mansfield and private investors, who include employees of Hatch Mansfield, holding the remaining shares.

McGrath believes that the input of French expertise will be a huge benefit when it comes to making a high quality sparkling wine.

“More than anything else, it’s the blending. I remember the first time I went to a blending of vins clairs [the young still wines from which champagne is made] and I was just gobsmacked by the ability of these craftsmen and women to take these very green, raw tasting wines and put together a blend with real vision.

“Domaine Evremond will be blended by the Taittinger Cellar Master and that’s a huge asset because the art of blending is the great art of champagne.”

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In fact Domaine Evremond will not be first the producer of English sparkling wine to deploy winemaking talent from the other side of the Channel – Hambledon in Hampshire is overseen by Hervé Jestin, formerly chef de cave at Champagne Duval Leroy for over 20 years and Exton Park is made by Frenchwoman Corinne Seely.

The new project has been greeted with enthusiasm by existing English wine producers: “That is exactly the sort of thing I have been hoping for,” said one. However, some may be disappointed that, according to McGrath, Domaine Evremond’s main focus will be selling English wine to the English market: “Our primary goal is to produce a small and high quality amount of wine. I don’t think export will be huge but I think there’s a very large, untapped market in the UK.”

We will have to wait a while before we can taste the wine, however. Planting will only begin once the viticultural team has found the right rootstocks and settled on the right areas for each vine. Ultimately, Domaine Evremond is expected to produce around 300,000 bottles of English sparkling wine a year and the hope is that the first grapes will be harvested in 2020 and the first wine released in 2021.

Does Pierre-Emmanuel believe that English sparkling wine can achieve a quality that rivals the best wines from France?

“I don't believe in competition between wines and food,” he says. “Competition is good in sport and business. We now have many very good English sparkling wines. Global warming helps as the climate is more generous. But when things are good we don’t talk about nationality. Mozart is Mozart. Alec Guinness is Alec Guinness. Brigitte Bardot is Brigitte Bardot.

“This sparkling wine produced by us will totally abolish frontiers and become a great, great wine. It will have its own personality and will not be a copy of anything - it will reflect the soul of Great Britain.”

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