Something I’ve been wanting to do for a very long time is hopefully becoming a reality. 

I’ve had an exciting and successful career working at senior level for some leading global enterprise companies, latterly joining the board of a city-based Venture Capital firm, where I helped to fund and kick-start new businesses, mainly in technology before creating a spin out.

Then it stopped being enjoyable. The dynamics had changed along with an incompatible merger followed by the sudden tragic death of a business partner stopped me in my tracks.  In September 18, I decided that the time had come for me to step off the escalator and quit city life.  I’d had enough and if the truth be known I’d been feeling it coming for some time.

The next chapter; Setting up a vineyard and embarking on a new life in Viticulture.

These blog posts will take you with me on a journey, the ups and downs, trials and tribulations of a single women starting a new life as a vineyard owner and winemaker.

My family has in fact some background in the wine industry, but apart from drinking the stuff, I’ve never really delved into the ins and outs. All that has changed, this is a new journey for me.

I started my search for land in September last year, trolling lots of property sites and speaking with various land agents. I bought ordnance survey maps covering areas of Sussex, as this is where I’d ideally like the vineyard to be (one of my oldest and best friends lives in Lewes) and downloaded soil maps.  I didn’t realise how difficult it would be to find a decent plot, the right terroir.  Now, months later I’m still searching.  Meanwhile land prices have risen from between £12K and £15K per acre to around £20K per acre or around £45K per hectare due to rising demand.  Still lower than land with planning permission for housing but expensive for Arable land.

My plan is to plant, in the main, pinot noir and chardonnay grapes. These two varieties make up the majority of the grape used for French Champagne and English Sparkling Wine.  So why sparking when my favourite tipple is red, especially a good Burgundy like Corton.  It is not as if we’re not able to produce some decent reds, if recent reports are anything to go by. I’m just not convinced we can achieve quality each year. The reason being our climate isn’t reliably hot enough year on year. You need long hot summers, like 2018 to keep the grapes on the vine for that bit longer so as to increase the sugars in the grape.  Also, price for price, in my humble opinion, to me the quality falls short of a good red produced elsewhere in the world, (I’m entitled to my opinion!)  However, my real reason for wanting to produce Sparkling is; Sussex is becoming recognised for its exceptional sparkling wines, beating Champagne on many occasions in blind tasting tests, thanks to excellent producers like RidgeView, recently winning Winemaker of the Year in the prestigious International Wine & Spirit Competition 2018.  You’re also seeing big players like Taittinger buying land in Kent.  This is because the same ridge of land in the Champagne region runs across parts of Kent and Sussex; (Note: Soil type will vary within regions), so if good British growers are establishing a market in a particular region of the UK then it’s best to capitalise on their success by producing another good sparkling wine in the same area hence boosting the importance of that area for English Sparkling Wine.

It takes several years from planting vines to producing a viable commercial crop and during that time the vines need maintaining.  After some financial modelling (my venture capital background put to some use at last!!)  it worked out that for a small vineyard of say approx. 20 acres your capital outlay including the cost of land, in the first five years (no viable yield) is approaching 3/4 of a million pounds, if you need drainage or heating systems then these costs will increase further and I haven’t included; overheads, basic commercial costs, consultancy fees etc.  Deep pockets are needed at this stage.  Assuming all goes to plan, you get a full yield from your vines and you’ve done enough prepping the market in order to sell 100% of the bottles you produce you should see proper revenue in year 7. The business will continue with cumulative losses for several years thereafter.  So, you see it’s not for the faint hearted.

I’m still pulling together the cost of building a winery, I’ll share this with you when I’ve got something worth sharing!