The English wine industry is facing a downturn, with prominent estates struggling to attract buyers. Factors contributing to this include a poor 2024 harvest, economic challenges, and founders reaching a point where they need to sell or pass on their businesses.
When Chapel Down announced in October that it had cancelled its plans for a sale, disappointment rippled through the English wine industry. Optimism about the sector’s prospects bubbled over last year following a bumper harvest and an uptick in international acquisitions of estates. But as wine estates struggle to attract buyers and reckon with a poor 2024 harvest and a stinging UK Budget, the sparkle has faded.
“It’s a shame because it would have been a very good reference for benchmark valuations,” Ed Mansel Lewis, head of viticulture at property consultants Knight Frank, said of a Chapel Down sale. “There hasn’t been that litmus test yet, which valuers can point to.” Would-be wine investors are heading into 2025 more cautiously than in previous years, land agents told the FT. Many of the country’s prominent vineyards are either lossmaking or shouldering hefty debts, and are now in search of investors in order to stay afloat or of buyers willing to take on the capital expenditure required to scale up production. Besides Chapel Down, two more of England’s largest, pioneering wine estates, Gusbourne and Rathfinny, are looking for buyers or partners, with many more privately up for sale, according to wine estate agents. Agents said that estate founders who are now established in the sector had reached a point in their lives where they either needed to commit to a new investment cycle, sell up or pass the business on to a relative. “It’s not a question of throwing in the towel, it’s a question of passing on the baton. If you’re going to commit further investment you need to be able to commit the time. In the end it’s an agricultural process,” said Chris Spofforth, farms and estates director at Savills. Gusbourne’s majority shareholder Lord Ashcroft said in July this year that he was considering selling his stake, and Rathfinny said it was looking for a partner or buyer in April last year. No buyer has yet emerged publicly for either estat
English Wine Wine Estates Sales Investment Industry Downturn
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