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Naked Wines reveals £1m investment into English wine as sales surge

Published:  09 August, 2017

Naked Wines has reported a 16% volume increase in annual sales of its English wines (to July 2017), driven by the seemingly unquenchably thirst for home-grown bubbles.

On the back of Brits’ continuing love affair with English wine, Naked Wines said it had earmarked £1m of investment into the booming industry. 

“As a crowd-funded wine business, we invest where our customers tell us to, so it’s fantastic to see English fizz now bubbling over as one of their favourites - people are voting with their taste buds, backing British businesses and winemakers pursuing their dreams,” said managing director, Eamon FitzGerald. 

Analysis of regional demand however suggested the palate for British bubbles weren’t consistent, with the thirst for home-grown sparkling wine either “bubbling over or fizzling out” depending on where in the UK you live, said the company.

According to the new research, English wine sales are booming in the South East, with English fizz increasingly appearing on dinner party tables from local vineyard visits, with online demand now following, said FitzGerald.

“If you live in London or the Home Counties - home to some of the UK’s best-known vineyards - you are 10 times more likely to choose English as your fizz of choice than the rest of the UK,” he said, adding these regions accounted for 51% of Naked Wines' English sparkling wine sales in the UK.

Nottingham had also emerged as a “surprise English fizz hotspot”, according to the research, with the city famous for its lace industry now having the highest volume of English wine sales outside of London, he said.

Naked Wines’ best-selling English fizz is Old Winchester Hill Blanc de Blancs NV from the Hampshire vineyard of ex-banker Ian Kellett. In 2016, the investors in the company raised £112,000 to fund Charles and Ruth Simpson's first English fizz from their Kent vineyard.

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