Chapel Down will invest £4.5 million to expand sparkling-wine capacity at its Kent winery by 14.3%

Chapel Down plans to invest £4.5 million at its winery in Tenterden, Kent, to expand its capacity for traditional-method sparkling wine by 14.3%, as the English producer shifts more of its harvest into sparkling production.

The company said in announcements released on Nov. 4 that the spending will go toward pressing equipment, tanks and other winery machinery. Under an average-harvest assumption, the project would lift annual capacity for traditional-method sparkling wine to 2.4 million bottles from 2.1 million bottles, an increase of 300,000 bottles.

The expansion is aimed less at raising total wine output than at changing what Chapel Down makes from a given crop. The company said a larger share of the fruit processed at Tenterden would be directed into traditional-method sparkling wine, which involves a second fermentation in bottle and an extended aging period before sale. On that basis, traditional-method sparkling wine would account for 90% of production at the site, up from 79%, a gain of 11 percentage points.

That distinction matters for interpreting the numbers. The 14.3% increase refers to potential sparkling-wine capacity under the same average harvest scenario. It is not a reported year-over-year increase in sales, and it does not mean the company expects to add 300,000 bottles to total production on top of current levels. Instead, part of the harvest now used for other wines would be redirected into traditional-method sparkling.

Chapel Down said the new equipment is expected to be installed in time for the 2027 harvest. Because traditional-method sparkling wine must be aged before release, the company said the first sales from the additional production are not expected until 2030. That creates a long gap between the capital outlay, the winemaking process and the point at which the extra bottles begin to generate revenue.

The investment comes as Chapel Down seeks to strengthen its position in English wine, a market where sparkling wine has become a key category. The company, based in Kent, produces both still and sparkling wines and is one of the better-known names in the sector. In the first half of 2026, Chapel Down Group plc reported net sales of £9.4 million.

Funding for the winery project is tied to a broader capital raise. Chapel Down said the financing includes an equity placing of about £5.5 million gross, with the result of that placing also announced on Nov. 4. The company presented the fundraising and the Tenterden investment as part of the same effort to support future production and sales of higher-value sparkling wine.

For Chapel Down, the project centers on using existing harvests differently rather than simply processing more fruit. By increasing the proportion of production devoted to traditional-method sparkling wine, the company is betting that a larger share of its output should sit in the category most closely associated with premium English wine. At the same time, the timeline means investors will have to wait several years before the added capacity is reflected in sales.

The plan also highlights a basic feature of the sparkling-wine business that does not apply in the same way to many still wines. Money is spent on vineyard management, harvest, winery equipment and production well before the finished bottles reach stores and restaurants. In Chapel Down’s case, the company expects the equipment to be working from the 2027 harvest, but the commercial benefit from that extra sparkling capacity is not expected to show up until 2030.

The company’s disclosures did not present the project as a response to a sudden jump in current demand. Instead, they described a capacity and product-mix investment at the Tenterden winery, designed to allow more of the same harvest to be turned into traditional-method sparkling wine over time.