Winemaker Chapel Down is raising a glass to its success after seeing significant growth in sales and profit during 2022 - and a vow to double the size of the business by 2026.

The Tenterden-headquartered company sold a record amount of its premium sparkling wine with 790,000 bottles shifted during the year - up 53% from 522,000 in 2021.

Production was also buoyed by the "excellent harvest" last year - fuelled by the long hot summer.

It said the quality of grapes picked last year was "outstanding" and allowed a harvest up 45% on the year before - enabling it to have the capacity to produce over two million bottles of wine. It had also upped its prices as a consequence of inflation.

As a consequence, its net sales revenues grew 10% to £15.6m and gross profit leap to £8.5m - up from £7m the year before.

The figures released were the first full year as a business purely focused on wine. The prior year it had disposed of its Curious Drinks brand.

It was also the first to see the fruits of a partnership deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to be its official sparkling wine - a move it said enhanced its exposure and expanded its customer base.

Chapel Down CEO Andrew Carter said: "It was a record year for Chapel Down with exceptional profitable growth delivered driven by the stellar performance of our traditional method sparkling wines, as we continue to premiumise the Chapel Down brand."

As part of that on-going process, it plans to "enhance" its brand packaging during the spring of this year.

He added: "The operational progress that we are making gives us confidence that we can build on 2022’s successes. We will have 750 acres fully productive for the 2023 harvest, we are completing the planting of a further 156 acres in spring 2023 and the investment made in 2022 to expand our Tenterden winery means we have the capacity to convert 2022’s bumper harvest into over two million bottles of wine."

In addition to boosting its Tenterden facility, it has also planted 38 new acres at Boarley Farm in Boxley, near Maidstone.

The CEO added: "The English wine industry is enjoying the fruits of its extraordinary terroir, favourable climate and sustained investment, and these advantages show no sign of abating. We have created a passionate, world-class team at Chapel Down, supported by strong relationships with our customers, growers and suppliers, who are all equally excited about developing this unique English wine growth story. This underpins our plans to double the size of the Chapel Down business by 2026.”