Chapel Down Raises £5.5 Million to Expand Its Kent Winery for the 2027 Harvest

Chapel Down has raised about £5.5 million from investors to expand production at its winery near Tenterden, funding a new press hall, extra tanks and related equipment that the English wine producer says should be in place for the 2027 harvest.

The company said on Wednesday, November 4, that it had sold 12,790,697 new shares at 43 pence each to institutional and other professional investors. Most of the proceeds, about £4.5 million, are earmarked for a new soft-pressing facility at the Tenterden site, while a separate retail offer opened on November 5 with a target of raising up to about £500,000 more. That offer is due to close at midday on Monday, November 9.

According to the company, the project will add a fifth press to the four already operating at the winery. It will also include 10 new 50,000-liter tanks, automation and efficiency equipment, and supporting construction works such as cooling, air and feeding systems, waste treatment measures, and health and safety work. Chapel Down said planning permission has already been granted and that construction is expected to begin in the final quarter of 2026, after the current harvest, with completion scheduled for July 2027.

The expansion is aimed at increasing the share of grapes and juice used for higher-margin sparkling wine. Chapel Down said its traditional-method sparkling wines are its best-selling and most profitable products, with each bottle generating roughly four times the gross margin of its other wines. At present, some juice pressed at Tenterden is diverted into lower-priced still and carbonated wines. The company said the new press hall is designed to shift more of that output into sparkling production.

Chapel Down’s projections show the amount of juice per ton of grapes used for sparkling wine rising from 550 liters to 630 liters after the project is completed. The company also said the sparkling share of output at Tenterden should increase from 79% to 90%. Daily grape-pressing capacity is expected to rise from 90 tons to 140 tons, cutting the number of days needed to process an average harvest from 30 to 21.

Based on an average harvest, Chapel Down said the site’s annual sparkling wine production should increase from 2.1 million bottles to 2.4 million bottles. In a larger harvest year, the winery could produce as many as 2.8 million bottles of sparkling wine, according to the company. It said about 300,000 bottles a year would be redirected from still and carbonated wine into sparkling wine, a change it expects to add about £2 million a year in gross margin from 2030, when the first additional bottles are ready for sale after aging.

That matters beyond one winery because English sparkling wine has been pushing deeper into the premium drinks market, where capacity, consistency and margins are closely watched. If Chapel Down’s plan works as outlined, the investment could strengthen its position in that segment and add to competition among higher-end sparkling wine producers.

The company also said a shorter pressing window should improve quality because grapes can be pressed closer to the time they are picked. It added that the larger facility should make it easier to handle bigger harvests at Tenterden instead of sending fruit to outside winemakers, which can add cost.

Directors committed £505,000 in the placing, the company said. That total included £200,000 each from Lord Michael Spencer and Nigel Wray, identified by the company as its two largest shareholders, with holdings of 27.34% and 13.78%, respectively. Chapel Down also said two U.K. institutional investors had indicated they would invest up to £2.5 million as cornerstone backers.

Chief Executive James Pennefather said in the company announcement that the placing had received strong support from new and existing investors. He said the expansion would help improve margin, quality and operational resilience by adding a new soft-pressing facility at Tenterden.

The company also brought forward one of its long-term sales goals. Chapel Down said it is now targeting annual sales of about 2.5 million bottles of sparkling wine by 2033, two years earlier than its previous target of 2035. It described that goal as equivalent to about 1% of global Champagne volumes.

The fund-raising announcement came with an update on this year’s harvest. Chapel Down said it picked 2,706 tons of grapes in 2026, down from 2,882 tons in 2025. The yield was 3.0 tons an acre, which the company said was 9% below its five-year average of 3.3 tons an acre. It attributed the decline to a late spring frost in May, saying the affected areas suffered modest damage.

Even with the smaller crop, the company said it expects about 2.5 million bottles of wine from the 2026 harvest. Chapel Down said it has access to 1,006 acres of vineyards, of which 897 acres are in full production, and that about three-quarters of those plantings are on the chalk soils of the Kent North Downs.

The Tenterden investment comes as the business reports sales growth. Chapel Down said half-year sales reached £9.4 million, up 19%. The company did not announce any changes for visitors to the Small Hythe site near Tenterden, and its statement focused on production rather than retail, restaurant or tourism operations. It also did not say whether construction work from this winter through July 2027 will affect access to the property.