The French dynasty behind the champagne house Taittinger has called for Eurostar to resume services to Kent to boost the region’s blossoming English wine industry.
Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger, honorary chairman of the 290-year-old wine company, and his daughter Vitalie, its president, said Eurostar’s decision to cut international services to and from Ashford International during the pandemic risked holding back tourists from visiting the numerous vineyards opening across Kent.
Mr Taittinger called the loss of Eurostar services in Kent “a big regression”.
He said: “For us, it’s obviously a mistake. Ashford, the station, should be a fight for all the region – we need it. It needs to develop this part of the world where we will have, I hope, many more wineries and vineyards.”
He made the comments at the champagne house’s opening of Domaine Evremond, a new £15m winery near Chilham which has been in development for almost a decade.
The winery, built in partnership with Taittinger’s UK distributor Hatch Mansfield, is one of the largest investments by a champagne house in Britain to date. The first glasses of its wine were poured on Thursday at a ceremony attended by the Duchess of Edinburgh.
Along with neighbouring Sussex, Kent has become a hotspot for wine-growers thanks to its chalky soil and increasingly warm climate, allowing for the production of high quality sparkling wines which enthusiasts say rival those made in Champagne itself. Domaine Evremond is just one of around 120 different wine-makers that now call it home, according to Visit Kent.
Winemakers in the region are fitting out their visitor centres with restaurants and hotel rooms in the bet that oenophiles from across the world will flock to their vineyards as the hype around English wines grows.
Yet without the ease of access that the Eurostar once offered to travellers to and from the continent, the train company is facing intensifying calls to launch a comeback.
Vitalie Taittinger, who took the reins of the company from her father in 2019, said: “Going to Ashford from Paris was not very much further than coming to Reims [the Northern French city considered the unofficial capital of Champagne]. You would have a lot of tourism.”
Andrew Carter, the chief executive of Chapel Down, an English winemaker based close to Ashford, Kent, added: “We see a significant opportunity to attract European and international guests.
“Facilitating direct access through the Eurostar would not only benefit local businesses but also allow our French neighbours the chance to enjoy some of the finest wines Kent has to offer.”
Eurostar services operated in and out of both Ashford and Ebbsfleet International stations for more than two decades. However, in the years leading up to the pandemic, increasingly fewer of its trains stopped in Kent. In 2020, they were put on indefinite hiatus, which Eurostar has blamed a combination of financial concerns and post-Brexit red tape.
Nicola Bates, the chief executive of WineGB, a trade association that represents English wine brands, said: “Ashford opening up would be so important for Kent. It’s an easy win, it’s a short stop, and it’s something which could support the growth of this brilliant sector. It’s time for it to happen.”
Hotel owners and retailers have also mourned the loss of Eurostar’s services at a time when millions of pounds are being ploughed into a long-running regeneration of Ashford designed to turn it into a hub for business and leisure. An online petition to bring Eurostar back to the town has gained more than 58,000 signatures since March 2023.
A spokesman for Eurostar said its stations would remain closed throughout 2024 and 2025, and that it would provide an update “should anything change regarding this”.
He added: “We understand this is disappointing for the local communities and we will continue to work closely and openly with the local councils on the future of the stations.”
With the train operator refusing to budge, it may be some time before the Taittingers and other Kentish winemakers get their wish. For now, they are focused on making Domaine Evremond a success as its first wines go on sale for about £50 per bottle.
The hype around English wine has inevitably sparked debates over how it compares to champagne. While production volumes and global sales are still tiny compared with champagne, some dare to speculate that English wines could one day rival their French counterparts in stature – particularly as higher temperatures caused by climate change heap pressure on French winegrowers.
However, Mr Taittinger argued the two should not be compared like-for-like. “It’s maybe a bit pretentious, but we believe that we are artists, and it’s not like a game of rugby, France versus England. I don’t like nationalists with wine. Wines are here to abolish frontiers,” he said.
Taittinger and Hatch Mansfield are currently expanding their presence in the hopes of being able to ramp up production over the years to come. Last year they planted more than 10 hectares of new chardonnay grapes on a site about five miles from Domaine Evremond.
Yet there are some British trends they will definitely not be following, such as making non-alcoholic wine, as people increasingly opt for no and low-alcohol alternatives.
Mr Taittinger said: “Alcohol is alcohol. When we go to alcohol, it’s because we don’t want to drink without alcohol.
“If you don’t want to pray, don’t go to church.”
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