LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Chapel Down hailed a "strong" 2025 harvest on Thursday, with good yields and "exceptional" grape quality, sending shares in the AIM-listed wine maker higher.
The company said in a harvest update that this year's yield is expected to be 2,882 tonnes, up from 1,852 in 2024, at an average yield of 3.7 tonnes per acre, versus 2.5 tonnes per acre a year earlier. This is 15% higher than the historic five-year average yield per tonne.

Chapel Down, England's largest wine maker, said the warm and consistent summer of 2025 created optimal conditions for fruit development, resulting in grapes "with a good balance of ripe fruit flavours for complexity and texture with the natural acidity that will add a fresh, crisp backbone to our wines".

It said the board remains confident in underlying trading conditions and therefore of achieving market expectations for the full year.

Chief executive James Pennefather said: "It is clear that 2025 will be seen as one of England's great vintages for Chapel Down, and is testament to the quality of the vineyards we have planted and the relentless attention to detail from our viticulture teams.

"I would like to thank all the members of our viticulture and winery team who have worked tirelessly to deliver such good quality and yield. This harvest was the second highest yield ever for Chapel Down and takes us one step closer to achieving our ambition of winning an equivalent 1% share of the global Champagne market by 2035."

At 1015 BST, the shares were 12% higher at 39.22p.

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