Christine Austin heads back to try out wine which comes from a vine she planted seven years ago

The speaker was Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, president of Taittinger champagne, who, as a 51 per cent majority investor with Hatch-Mansfield, the importer of Taittinger to the UK, was literally ploughing millions of pounds into creating an English wine.

Why? “We feel that this part of England, with its chalk-based soil, good drainage and increasingly good climate has all the right elements to make excellent wine,” he said at the time.

After the speeches, I, and a hundred other wine professionals were each handed a small, rooted Pinot Noir vine, grafted on to a rootstock that was deemed the best for the soil, and shown exactly where to plant it.

I carefully noted where on this slope ‘my’ vine was and I made sure that it was heeled in correctly before retreating to the large marquee and a glass of champagne, Taittinger of course.

Since then, I had heard nothing. There was not a word about progress over the intervening years, until just a few weeks ago when an invitation arrived to visit Domaine Evremond.

The name of the estate comes from Charles de Saint-Evremond, a 17th century French poet who moved to England and increased the popularity of champagne during the court of Charles II.

He died in 1703 and is buried in Westminster Abbey, which is why the original acquisition of land by the Taittinger-Hatch Mansfield consortium was announced in the Abbey at the start of the project.

When I arrived at the same place I had visited in 2017, in the same kind of rainy weather I had endured before, I did not recognise it.

There were vineyards stretching over the hill and across the valley and in the middle was a large, squat, sandy-coloured building that seemed to emerge from the hillside. This is the new winery, two thirds of it built underground to maintain a natural cool temperature, with a planted green roof.

I had hoped to re-acquaint myself with my vine, to check it was doing OK, but the whole landscape had changed so much that I had to be content with walking up and down the rows.

This time, the speeches came from Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger’s daughter, Vitalie, now president of Taittinger, with Christelle Rinville, vineyard director of Taittinger, Alexandre Ponnavoy, chef de cave at Taittinger and Master of Wine Patrick McGrath, CEO of Hatch Mansfield.

But standing on the sidelines seemed to be the most important person in the group, Mark Gaskain who had owned the land and sold it to the consortium.

As one of the UK’s largest fruit growers, why had he sold a prime vineyard site to someone else? The answer is simple.

Vines need different conditions to apple trees. And there are still some apple trees around the Evremond vineyard, leased back by Mark, but the vines, on the chalky, flinty soil, on slopes with the right inclination, were doing a lot better than the apple trees they had replaced.

There are differences between growing vines in Champagne and Kent. The level of light in Kent is lower than Champagne and so the rows are further apart to avoid shading, and this location is just 10km from the sea, with a maritime climate.

The workforce, experienced in all kinds of fruit cultivation have been trained to prune and look after vines. Everyone seems to have a working knowledge of ‘Franglais’ on this estate, as the two nationalities combine their knowledge of viticulture with this particular terroir.

And now there is a winery, fully prepared for the 2024 harvest. It took three years to build, and most of it is underground.

This is an area of outstanding natural beauty, so there were many considerations regarding woodland, ponds, wildflower meadows and orchards. Sustainability has been planned into every step of this project.

Wine has been made on the estate since 2019, tiny amounts at first, in a barn, but kept in tank, while Alexandre evaluated its character and style.

Now the 2024 harvest will be hand-picked and fermented in the new winery. The grapes on the estate are the usual varieties for English sparkling wines, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Meunier.

The reason for the visit to Domain Evremond, in Chilham, Kent to was to taste the first cuvée.

Had Alexandre attempted to make a champagne style wine? “It would be a mistake to try to copy champagne because there are different challenges in England. The main goal is to find the expression of the terroir,” he said as we toured the winery. “These are young vines, while in France the vines are at least 40 years old.”

The weather here is different, so the acidity is higher, and the closeness to the sea gives another aspect to the taste.

He has used a blend of earlier vintages to make the first Classic Cuvée and it is delicious. Made from 55 per cent Pinot Noir, 35 per cent Chardonnay and 10 per cent Meunier, mainly from the 2020 vintage, it has spent three years on lees.

Surprisingly broad in flavour, with a fine, consistent bead it shows a fresh, garden blossom aroma with citrus and an almost saline note followed by white peach notes, and a hint of white pepper.

The wine has just 7g/l dosage, which is drier than many champagnes, but it has a softness and elegance all of its own.

As the estate develops and the vineyards acquire some age, Alexandre plans to make a rosé, but a vintage wine will take much longer. “The vines need more age for a vintage,” he said.

While there are many vineyards across England and Wales now making excellent sparkling wines, Domaine Evremond is a hugely significant development because it is the first vineyard where a top Champagne house has invested in a project from the ground up.

It shows that English sparkling wine is beginning a new era of international recognition.

Domaine Evremond Classic Cuvée will be released in Spring 2025 at around £50 per bottle.