Chapel Down is on a mission to change the way the world thinks about English wine. The Kent winemaker recently took its best-selling sparkling wine to the Champagne region of France, to conduct the “ultimate sparkling wine taste test” and found that a blind tasting revealed 60% of French drinkers preferred the English sparkling wine to their native Champagne.
The Moodie Davitt Report’s Associate Editor Colleen Morgan meets with Chapel Down Sales Director Tom Hepworth-Bond to learn about the winemaker’s strategy in travel retail and its aim to offer wine drinkers a “fresher way to celebrate”.
Tom, let’s start with Chapel Down’s success in that blind tasting. How can the brand get that message across in travel retail where the winemaker hopes to extend its footprint?
Chapel Down is England’s leading winemaker with the largest distribution and brand awareness here in the UK, and an extensive range of wines, led by our best-selling Brut Sparkling.
In recent years we have begun exporting to global markets, and travel retail locations – airports, ports and the Channel Tunnel – are essential touchpoints for building brand awareness internationally.
To communicate our message in these settings, we collaborate with travel retail partners to create impactful in-store brand activations that emphasise the premium quality of English sparkling wine and highlight Chapel Down as a “fresher way to celebrate”.
This year we have activated with both Avolta and Lagardère Travel Retail across London Gatwick South & North, London Heathrow T5, London City Airport and London Luton airports. Category and brand-focused video content has been deployed via retailer media screens at each location to drive category awareness and educate the global consumer. This has coincided with trained ambassadors providing samples of our wines and critical education at point of purchase.
For the past two years, we have celebrated World Champagne Day with our travel retail partners to welcome travellers to England with a glass of the country’s finest sparkling wine.
Last year, we welcomed 3,000 Eurostar passengers arriving at London St. Pancaras with a complimentary glass of Chapel Down. This year, in partnership with Eurotunnel Le Shuttle, we provided more than 1,000 travellers with a taste of Chapel Down upon arrival.
Tasting is crucial to building consumer interest and loyalty, as it drives the strongest conversion.
Tell us something about Chapel Down’s background. When was the brand founded, where is it based and what are Chapel Down’s hero products?
As a market leader, we’re on a mission to change the way the world thinks about English wine. At our home in the Garden of England, our world-class winemaking team produce award-winning sparkling wines of exceptional quality.
We export our English sparkling wines to 14 countries and have recently launched a pair of travel retail exclusives – Chapel Down Travellers Edition Brut and Chapel Down Travellers Edition Rose – to bring a vintage experience to those travelling.
Our wines are produced from grapes grown in the South East of England. We own some of the finest vineyards in the country, primarily situated on the North Downs of Kent with a terroir very similar to that of Champagne.
Our Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Bacchus vines are grown on south-facing chalk soils and benefit from a warm, maritime climate. We also source high-quality fruit from long-term partner vineyards across Kent, Sussex and Essex, resulting in balanced wines with unique flavour profiles.
We have a world-class winemaking team with extensive experience in sparkling wine and cool-climate wine regions. Our sparkling and still wines are made to the highest standards using the latest winemaking techniques, resulting in elegant wines with balanced acidity and rich fruit characters.
In 2021 we introduced our ‘Discovery Series’, a collection of wines led by our winemaking team produced from experimental plantings and modern winemaking practises to better understand the versatility of this relatively new and unexplored wine region.
Where is Chapel Down featured in travel retail?
We are distributed across 19 locations with Avolta, including major travel hubs London Heathrow, London Gatwick, London Stansted, Birmingham, Manchester and Edinburgh airports. Further locations with Lagardère include London Luton and London City airports, along with their stores on Irish Ferries.
UK-wide distribution with market-leading duty-free players has been pivotal in a successful launch in travel retail over the last 18 months.
What new regional markets does Chapel Down have its eye on and why?
Chapel Down’s reputation is rapidly growing with wine enthusiasts around the globe. Consumers are discovering our traditional method sparkling wines and enjoying their fresh and crisp flavour profile.
Building our brand in leading Champagne export markets is a key part of our international growth strategy. Markets such as the USA, Germany and Japan are key, alongside Scandinavia where English wine has developed a prominent following already.
What demographics are the brand targeting? And how?
The brand is targeting Millennials, who are leading the shift in perception of English sparkling wine. Recent research by IWSR indicates that over half (58%) of Millennials prefer the taste of English sparkling wine to Champagne.
This group’s values align well with English sparkling wine, as they tend to favour brands with strong provenance, authenticity and ethical transparency, and enjoy brands that offer memorable experiences.
To connect with this demographic, we are building brand awareness through digital advertising and high-profile partnerships, including sponsorships of England Cricket and the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race. We encourage trial through activations at major events, such as Tom Kerridge’s Pub in the Park festival series, and through sampling programmes with trade partners in settings like airport terminals and the Channel Tunnel.
Additionally, we foster brand loyalty by inviting engagement through our expanding tourism offering, with over 60,000 visitors welcomed to the winery each year.
What are Chapel Down’s short- and long-term strategies in travel retail?
Travel retail is an essential platform for us to recruit a new global audience to both the English sparkling wine category and to Chapel Down as the category leader.
UK tourists love being able to take English wine to their friends and colleagues abroad; equally tourists to the UK welcome the chance to take English wine home. Given the celebratory nature of travel and the little moments in and around it, it plays well into brand positioning.
Leading retailers and carriers have keenly adopted English wine. They have been supportive in giving our high-potential category the attention and space in-store to grow and are being rewarded with strong commercial returns.
Developing the category’s reputation globally is a key growth pillar for our industry. Travel retail offers a unique opportunity for us to drive visibility and trial through activation in travel hubs or onboard. We have and will continue to work alongside our peers in the English wine industry to develop consumer-facing activations that promote the exceptional quality of English wine. ✈️
