Made in England ResearchDataset
England's vineyards, county by county
Where England's vines are planted, from the official vineyard register, with each county's plantings in the last five years, the grapes grown in each region and 25 years of national growth. Kent has more than a quarter of the UK's vines. Essex has planted more than any county except Kent in the last five years.
Every vineyard in the UK has to be on the official vineyard register, kept by the Food Standards Agency. This page brings together the published figures from that register: how much of England is under vine in each county, where new vines have gone in over the last five years, which grapes are grown where, and how the industry has grown since 2000.
The county figures are published once a year, and only for the leading counties. Where a county is missing from a column, it is because no figure was published for it that year, not because it has no vines. How these figures are made explains the gaps.
Key findings
- Kent had 1,239 hectares of vines in 2024, more than a quarter of the UK total and nearly twice as much as West Sussex, the next county.
- Essex has risen from sixth to third. It planted 258 hectares in the last five years, more than any county except Kent, and now has nearly four times the vines it had around 2015.
- New planting is spreading west and north. Herefordshire, Cornwall, Norfolk, Hertfordshire and Yorkshire each planted 20 hectares or more in the last five years.
- The UK had 4,985 hectares of vines on the register in 2025, almost six times the area in 2000. The 2025 harvest made 16.6 million bottles, up 55% on 2024.
- The area of young vines not yet cropping fell from about 980 hectares to 533 in 2025, which suggests new planting has slowed after the boom of the early 2020s.
Kent has more vines than any other county
Choose a county on the map or in the table to see its figures. Hectares of vines on the official register.
| County | 2024 | 2022 | About 2015 | Planted in the last five years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1,239 | 1,033 | 344 | 363 | |
| 671 | 570 | 296 | 188 | |
| 469 | 325 | 119 | 258 | |
| 461 | 493 | 231 | 74 | |
| 426 | 380 | 235 | 119 | |
| 130 | 127 | 132 | 22 | |
| 97 | 90 | 47 | 31 | |
| 87 | 92 | 74 | – | |
| 78 | 95 | 64 | – | |
| 76 | 65 | 26 | 28 | |
| Not published | – | 30 | 33 | |
| Not published | – | 24 | 30 | |
| Not published | – | 30 | 28 | |
| Not published | – | – | 27 | |
| Not published | – | – | 25 | |
| Not published | – | – | 21 | |
| Not published | – | – | 20 | |
| Not published | – | 34 | – | |
| Not published | – | 26 | – |
Sources: Food Standards Agency figures published in WineGB's Industry Reports for 2025 (2024 figures, top ten counties; plantings in the last five years, top 15) and 2022-23 (2022 figures, top ten), and an earlier Wine Standards table published with the 2015 harvest figures (top 15). A dash means no figure was published for that county.
Essex has planted more than any county except Kent in the last five years
Hectares of new vines planted in the last five years, the 15 counties with the most.
| County | Hectares planted |
|---|---|
| Kent | 363 |
| Essex | 258 |
| West Sussex | 188 |
| Hampshire | 119 |
| East Sussex | 74 |
| Herefordshire | 33 |
| Dorset | 31 |
| Berkshire | 30 |
| Suffolk | 28 |
| Cornwall | 28 |
| Hertfordshire | 27 |
| Norfolk | 25 |
| Surrey | 22 |
| Isle of Wight | 21 |
| Yorkshire | 20 |
Source: Food Standards Agency Wine Team, published in WineGB's Industry Report 2025.
Kent and Sussex still lead, but the growth is moving
Around 2015 the four counties of the South East and Hampshire had most of England's vines, with Kent and West Sussex close together. Since then Kent has pulled well ahead, more than trebling its area to 1,239 hectares. West Sussex, East Sussex and Hampshire have roughly doubled.
Essex is the fastest riser among the larger counties. It had about 119 hectares around 2015, sixth in the country, and 469 in 2024, third.
Surrey is the exception: it had about 132 hectares around 2015 and 130 in 2024. Outside the South East, Dorset and Suffolk have both more than doubled, and the five-year figures show plantings of 20 hectares or more in counties that were not in the top 15 a decade ago, including Norfolk, Hertfordshire, the Isle of Wight and Yorkshire.
Three counties, East Sussex, Devon and Gloucestershire, show a little less area in 2024 than in 2022. The register is revised as vineyards are surveyed again and as vines are pulled up, and the two years were published on slightly different bases, so small falls should be read with care.
The UK's vineyards have grown almost sixfold since 2000
Hectares of vines on the UK register.
Source: Food Standards Agency Wine Team, published by WineGB, and the Food Standards Agency's 2025 production figures (March 2026). UK figures, which include a small area in Wales.
Show the figures behind the chart
2025 was the second-largest harvest on record
UK producers made 16.6 million bottles from the 2025 harvest, up 55% on 2024. The record is 21.6 million, from 2023. Output swings sharply from year to year with the weather: 2024 made 10.7 million.
The register held 779 commercial vineyards in 2025, up 5.8% on the year, and 1,158 vineyards and wineries in all. It also listed 56 abandoned vineyards, up from 51.
The area of young vines, those under three years old and not yet harvested, fell by almost half in 2025, from about 980 hectares to 533. Some of that is vines planted in the early 2020s coming into crop. It also points to fewer new vines going in.
Chardonnay and Pinot Noir make up more than 60% of UK vines
Hectares of each grape variety, the ten most planted, UK.
| Variety | Hectares |
|---|---|
| Chardonnay | 1,498 |
| Pinot Noir | 1,370 |
| Pinot Meunier | 411 |
| Bacchus | 334 |
| Seyval Blanc | 123 |
| Solaris | 117 |
| Pinot Gris | 80 |
| Reichensteiner | 65 |
| Rondo | 64 |
| Pinot Blanc | 54 |
The three most planted grapes in each region
| Region | First | Second | Third |
|---|---|---|---|
| South EastKent, East and West Sussex, Surrey, London | Chardonnay 974 | Pinot Noir 793 | Pinot Meunier 268 |
| WessexHampshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Isle of Wight | Chardonnay 270 | Pinot Noir 176 | Pinot Meunier 73 |
| EastEssex, Suffolk, Norfolk, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire | Pinot Noir 218 | Chardonnay 144 | Bacchus 117 |
| WestCornwall, Devon, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire | Pinot Noir 93 | Chardonnay 41 | Seyval Blanc 37 |
| Thames and ChilternsBerkshire, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire | Chardonnay 46 | Pinot Noir 42 | Bacchus 12 |
| Midlands and NorthThe Midlands, the North and Scotland | Solaris 32 | Pinot Noir 31 | Seyval Blanc 21 |
| WalesAll of Wales | Pinot Noir 15 | Solaris 13 | Chardonnay and Seyval Blanc 12 |
Source: Food Standards Agency Wine Team, published in WineGB's Industry Report 2025. Regions are WineGB's.
The Champagne grapes, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, account for about seven in ten hectares, because most English wine is sparkling. Further north the mix changes: Solaris, an early-ripening grape bred for cool climates, is the most planted variety in the Midlands and North.
Download the data
Free to use with a credit to Made in England Research and a link to this page.
How these figures are made
Where the figures come from
Vineyards in the UK of 0.1 hectares or more, and anyone making wine for sale, must register with the Food Standards Agency's Wine Standards team. The register records each vineyard's area, grape varieties and planting year. The agency keeps the details of each vineyard confidential and publishes totals. Every figure on this page is one of those published totals, taken from the agency's own releases or from WineGB's annual Industry Reports, which publish the agency's figures. We have not estimated or modelled anything.
Why some counties are missing
County totals are only published for the leading counties: the top ten in most years, and the top 15 for plantings in the last five years. A county missing from a column had no published figure that year. It does not mean it has no vines. Devon, for example, had 87 hectares in 2024 but does not appear in the five-year list, and counties such as Cornwall and Herefordshire appear in the five-year list but not in the top ten by area.
Which year each column covers
The 2024 column comes from WineGB's 2025 report, which gives a county breakdown of 4,581 hectares; the agency later revised the 2024 total to 4,841 hectares without publishing a new breakdown, so county figures add up to less than the UK total. The 2022 column comes from WineGB's 2022-23 report, which puts the total at 3,928 hectares before about 400 hectares planted in 2023. The column headed about 2015 comes from an undated Wine Standards table published alongside its figures for the 2015 harvest. Treat it as a guide to the order of counties a decade ago rather than an exact figure for one year.
What a county is
Counties are as the register reports them, which broadly follows the historic and ceremonial counties. Yorkshire is reported as one county. On the map, unitary areas are drawn with the county they sit in, so Medway is shown with Kent and Brighton and Hove with East Sussex.
UK and England
The national figures are for the UK, because that is how they are published. Wales has under 2% of the UK's vines and Scotland almost none, so the UK totals are close to England's. All county figures are for English counties.
The 2025 figures
The 2025 total of 4,985 hectares adds the four categories in the agency's 2025 release: vines in production (4,357.66 hectares), young vines not yet harvested (533.04), abandoned vines (67.73) and hobby vines (26.99). Bottles are the agency's conversion of the 124,377.68 hectolitres declared by producers, who returned 98% of surveys.
Corrections are welcome: write to marcus@madeinengland.com.
Sources: Food Standards Agency, UK wine production soars in 2025 (March 2026); WineGB Industry Report 2025; WineGB Industry Report 2022-23; Wine Standards, UK vineyard register planting and production statistics; Food Standards Agency, UK vineyard register. Map boundaries: Office for National Statistics, Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.
Next update
The Food Standards Agency publishes each year's harvest and vineyard totals in the spring, and WineGB publishes its Industry Report, with the county figures, in the summer. This page will be updated after each.
Change log
October 2026. First edition, with figures to the 2025 harvest.
Suggested citation
Made in England Research, England's vineyards, county by county. From Food Standards Agency vineyard register figures, data to the 2025 harvest.