Conservative peer Lord Ashcroft today boosted his ambitions for the English wine industry as his embryonic vineyard business Shellproof took over the producing winery Gusbourne Estate in a £7 million deal.
The business, which will be renamed Gusbourne and is 64%-owned by Ashcroft, aims to be producing 500,000 bottles of still and sparkling wine within 11 years.
Gusbourne wines, including its award-winning Brut Reserve, Blanc de Blanc and Guinevere, are stocked in retailers such as Selfridges and Berry Bros & Rudd. They sell for between £20 and £30 a bottle.
The current Gusbourne Estate has 58 acres of vines, and this will be increased to 200 acres with the inclusion of Shellproof’s Halnaker vineyard in Kent and sites in West Sussex. The company is raising £2.85 million through a share placing underwritten by Ashcroft at 54p a share. The shares today shot up 10.5p to 42p.
Gusbourne founder and owner Andrew Weeber, who will become chairman of the company, said: “Our recent successes demonstrate the huge potential of the Gusbourne brand and I am very excited to be embarking on a new phase of business development and expansion.”
The timescale to reach peak production is based on three years of vine planting, four years for the vines to reach maturity and four more for sparkling wine to mature.
Meanwhile, Punk IPA producer BrewDog has raised £3 million of its targeted £4 million new capital through crowdfunding in just two months.
