_Life among the vines: an interview with Ed Mansel Lewis, Knight Frank Partner & Head of Viticulture
Q: Ed, how important is the viticulture industry in the UK?
''The British wine industry is one of the fastest-growing worldwide, with a 70% increase in hectarage in the last five years alone. Figures from Wines of Great Britain, the national association for the English and Welsh wine industry, show that the number of acres planted with vines in the UK more than doubled in the eight years to 2021, with a record 3.2 million vines planted in 2019 - up from 1.8 million in 2018. Overall, the market is worth £338 million with over 700 businesses producing some 10.5 million bottles each year.
UK wine has taken off, especially in the last 18 months but it takes five years for vines to mature so demand exceeds supply at present. In this environment, successful winemakers need to be open-minded about where they source their grapes.''
Q: How did you become involved in viticulture?
''In 2015, while working as a land agent in Canterbury, I took a call from the Managing Director of Hatch Mansfield, premium wine specialists and exclusive UK distributors of Taittinger champagne. Together, these two companies set up Domaine Evremond to make Taittinger the first champagne house to invest in UK land to make premium sparkling champagne. They had identified land for their vineyard and wanted us to act as their agent. That call was simply a once in a lifetime opportunity. We became Taittinger’s UK agent, buying 69 hectares of land at Stone Stile in Kent for them which generated enormous media interest and set me off on my viticulture journey.''
Ed helping out with the Tattinger grape harvest in Chilham, Kent.
Q: What are the difficulties of finding the best land?
''The best terroir for growing vines must have free-draining soil, preferably chalk, the land must be no higher than 100 metres above sea level and it must face within the range of southeast and southwest. These requirements are fairly prevalent but the problem was that no map existed that showed where all three coincided and the process was ridiculously cumbersome. I would have many tabs open on my laptop, one showing altitude, one showing the underlying soil strata, one with the contours and general directions of the slope and a fourth from the Land Registry showing who owned the land. If there were too many owners on one plot I would discount it, focusing instead on large land boundaries with few owners. Then a chance meeting with a cartographer at a cricket match solved the problem. He said he could create a bespoke mapping application with all these criteria overlaid. It was wonderful, allowing me to immediately see all the locations that met my criteria.''
Q: So, what was the next step?
''I cold-called landowners at these locations and asked if they would be interested in growing vines. Initially, few seemed interested but eventually, I found two fruit farmers whose orchards were coming to the end of their lives and required replanting. Once they looked at the financials of planting vines instead, they were persuaded. We had created something exceptionally valuable, a map that identified land suitable for vines. No one else was investing in vineyard consultancy within the UK and it was a specialism that I relished that soon attracted interest from several significant investors.''
Q: What value do you add for producers?
''Two things move the needle to increase turnover - first, the number of bottles they sell, secondly, whether they sell those bottles at retail price, trade price or wholesale to the supermarkets. Every wine producer should have a strategy for increasing the percentage of wine they sell at retail price. Wine producers must compete to get people on to their estates and make their customer service first-class. For example, anyone who has visited a South African vineyard will know that they site their tasting room in a supreme position, probably at the top of a hill surrounded by vines, encouraging their clients to linger for longer over a fabulous view and drink more wine by the glass.
This is at the heart of placemaking. How you make the experience as good as it can be is a key part of the consultancy I do. With the vineyard as the anchor, you can surround it with complimentary activities that will increase your sales: invite a local cheese producer to do a cheese and wine pop-up event, host an art exhibition, or have a musical evening where the estate's wines can be sampled.''
Q: What are your plans at Knight Frank?
''Knight Frank is the undoubted market leader in country house sales and I aim to make it the market leader in vineyard consultancy within the next two years. With 130 different service lines, there are so many ways Knight Frank can assist wine producers, including planning, development, hospitality and business rate consultancy.''
Q: How excited are you about the future of the industry?
''I am hugely excited. There is so much talent moving to the UK, all keen to be part of a new stage for the wine industry. This is the first new wine area developing since Australia 30 or 40 years ago. Watching the private equity firms and venture capitalists get involved, it’s clear that the opportunities are compelling. And of course, the wine we make is itself exciting. The milder weather in the UK means it is now possible to make sparkling wine with traditional methods and as a consequence, the taste is so much more sophisticated - deep with apricot, honey and brioche tones.''
Q: At the end of a long week travelling across southern England, what is your wine of choice?
''It would be a straight choice between Wiston Estate Blanc de Blancs 2015 and Hidden Spring Vineyard Bacchus Fume.''