It has the same chalky soil as the Champagne region and its wine has the same protected status – and often beats French fizz in blind tastings. Now Sussex has launched a plan to attract many more visitors to its 138 vineyards, aiming to increase the value of wine tourism from £25m today to £283m by 2040.
Sussex has 888 hectares of vineyards, or 25.5% of the British land under vine, second only to Kent at 29.6%. But according to the authors of the growth plan – the tourism development agency Sussex Modern and the Sussex Visitor Economy Initiative – there are 40,000 hectares of land suitable for grapes available, giving the county enormous growth potential.
