insideKENT Magazine Issue 46 - January 2016 | Page 13

NEWS

CHAMPAGNE TAITTINGER ACQUIRES LAND IN KENT
TO ESTABLISH A UK VINEYARD

Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger and Patrick McGrath MW with flags. © Thomas Alexander

Champagne Taittinger has announced the launch
of Domaine Evremond. Working with Hatch
Mansfield and private investors, this unique
collaboration marks the first time that a
Champagne house has invested in the UK with
the intention of producing premium English
Sparkling Wines.
The team has purchased 69 hectares of farmland
at Stone Stile Farm in Kent. Forty hectares of this
will be planted with Chardonnay, Pinot Noir
and Pinot Meunier vines to produce English
Sparkling Wine.

Comments Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, President,
Champagne Taittinger: “We have dreamt for a
number of years of working with our dear friends
in the UK to create a special Franco/British project.
Built on the values of friendship, this venture will
create something special to show our appreciation
of the UK support for Champagne – it is
Champagne Taittinger’s number one export
market. We are very excited that this dream is
now becoming a reality.

links with Kent and with Great Britain as we
embark on this venture.”

“Our family has strong connections to Kent
through my father, Jean Taittinger, who twinned
Canterbury with Reims over 45 years ago when
he was Mayor of Reims (1959 – 1977); so I am
looking forward to being able to strengthen these

No wine will be produced until the plots are
transformed from orchards into vineyards, after
which time premium English Sparkling Wine will
be made using ‘domaine’ fruit from the farm.

The land, a former apple farm, is near Chilham
in Kent, close to Canterbury and Faversham. The
plots to be planted are a maximum of 80 metres
above sea level, with chalk soil and south-facing
slopes, creating an ideal terroi Ȁ