diff --git a/news/430.feature.rst b/news/430.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..68a4fc1b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/news/430.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Added an ``encoding`` attribute to ``ChannelFileWrite``.
diff --git a/src/execnet/gateway_base.py b/src/execnet/gateway_base.py
index 73dc7175..5048c45e 100644
--- a/src/execnet/gateway_base.py
+++ b/src/execnet/gateway_base.py
@@ -1079,6 +1079,8 @@ def __repr__(self) -> str:
 
 
 class ChannelFileWrite(ChannelFile):
+    encoding = "utf-8"
+
     def write(self, out: bytes) -> None:
         self.channel.send(out)
 
diff --git a/testing/test_channel.py b/testing/test_channel.py
index d4712277..e6f9f7cf 100644
--- a/testing/test_channel.py
+++ b/testing/test_channel.py
@@ -327,6 +327,7 @@ def test_channel_file_write_error(self, gw: Gateway) -> None:
         channel = gw.remote_exec("pass")
         f = channel.makefile()
         assert not f.isatty()
+        assert f.encoding == "utf-8"
         channel.waitclose(TESTTIMEOUT)
         with pytest.raises(IOError):
             f.write(b"hello")