Taittinger is launching Domaine Evremond, a winery within a 69 hectare plot in Kent near Canterbury that will be used to produce a range of new “premium” English sparkling wines.

Around 35-40 hectares will be planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Some 20,000 to 25,000 cases are expected to be initially produced.

“We have dreamt for a number of years of working with our dear friends in the UK to create a special Franco/British project,” said Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of the Champagne house. “We are very excited that this dream is now becoming a reality.”

The purchased land is a former orchard near Chilham in Kent, close to Canterbury and Faversham.

Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier vines will be planted to produce English sparkling wine, although the exact planting figures are not yet known.

The plots have an “ideal terroir” for producing sparkling wine, sitting at a maximum of 80 metres above sea level with chalk soil and south-facing slopes, Taittinger said.

No wine will be produced until the land is fully transformed from orchards into vineyards, with no definite time-scale so far in place.

It is estimated that planting will begin in May 2017, although it could start as quickly as May of next year. However, the first wines will likely not be seen on the market until the mid to late 2020s. 

Taittinger has insisted that the English sparkling wine it will produce should not be directly compared to Champagne.

“Our aim is to make something of real excellence in the UK’s increasingly temperate climate, and not to compare it with Champagne or any other sparkling wine,” he said.

Champagne houses have been rumoured to be searching for plots in the south of England for some time as they seek to capitalise on its increasingly similar growing conditions with the famous French region.

Read more at Source | The Drinks Business