Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Michael Kennedy, Chief Executive Officer of Roebuck Estates – who make premium sparkling wine from their multi-vineyard estates in Sussex.

Following university, Michael joined the Graduate Management Scheme of Marks and Spencer, and became the first trainee manager to be appointed to an overseas position in Paris. After a period as a buyer, he moved to Mars Confectionery where he worked as a National Sales Manager in the UK.

What followed was years in the drinks industry working predominantly in premium branded spirits – he joined the Drambuie Liqueur Company in 2002, became CEO in 2011 and after a successful turnaround of the iconic Scottish brand, led the subsequent sale to William Grants & Son in 2014.

His most recent role, prior to joining Roebuck Estates, was with Stock Spirits Group, one of the largest manufacturers and marketers of alcoholic beverages in Europe, where he ran the Italian and international arm of the business and headed up the Mergers & Acquisitions department.

During his comparatively short time at Roebuck Estates, which was established in 2013, the brand has won numerous trophies and awards at global wine competitions, launched a new tasting area at its flagship Petworth vineyard and become the first exclusive English sparkling wine partner at RHS Hampton Court Garden Festival.

You can find out more about Roebuck Estates by following them @roebuckestates on Instagram and facebook.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is David Bailey – the owner of Wraxall Vineyard in Somerset.

David and his wife, Lexa Hunt bought Wraxall – thought to be the oldest vineyard in Somerset – in February 2021 having moved into the neighbouring 200-year-old farmhouse a few years earlier.

The couple, who have both run and grown businesses within the financial sector, had absolutely no viticultural experience but saw an opportunity, not only to make great wine, but a place where people can come and enjoy that wine.

Last year, they opened The View at Wraxall, a stunning glass-fronted tasting and events space overlooking the vines and they have recently finished renovating the old, dilapidated winery into a charming rural botlhole to get away from it all.

Their increasing portfolio of high-quality wines currently includes a still rosé, made from early ripening pinot noir, a still bacchus and a barrel fermented bacchus, which recently won the trophy for Best Bacchus at the WineGB Awards. The first of their traditionally method sparkling wines are expected to be ready for release towards the end of the year.

We talk about David's reluctance to become a vineyard owner, how important tourism is to the longevity of Wraxall and what the vineyard's previous 90-year-old owners think about David and Lexa's takeover.

You can find out more about Wraxall and order their award-winning wines at wraxallvineyard.co.uk and you can follow them @wraxallvineyard on Instagram.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Joining me on this week's episode of The English Wine Diaries is John Wilkins, Commercial Director at Itasca Wines and Penn Croft Vineyards in Hampshire.

Itasca Wines is a sustainable full contract winemaking company, which under the lead of award-winning winemaker Ben Smith, delivers a grape to bottle service for a host of top wine brands and premium boutique vineyards across the UK.

Ben and the Itasca team also produce wines from grapes grown in their own vineyard, Penn Croft, where they have 16,000 vines of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Bacchus.

The business is the shared vision of local farmer and sustainable agriculture expert, Simon Porter, and filmmaker Malcolm Walker, whose credits include Star Wars, Aliens and wine documentary show Cellar Rats.

Central to their business vision is sustainability and a mission to drive adoption of biodiverse viticulture and they have invested huge amounts into sustainability-focused innovations including a natural wetlands system so no waste water leaves the site, a solar farm for electricity and thermo controlled tanks.

This, they say, is because they are in it for the long run and want to make wine in a way that not only protects, but actively gives back to the natural world.

To find out more follow @penncroftvineyards and @itascawines on Instagram.

This episode of The English Wine Diaries is brought to you in partnership with New Dawn Pubs and The Red Lion in Odiham, where you can book a Pinot & Pyjamas weekender, which includes a 2-night weekend stay, early check-in, or late check-out, a welcome glass of wine each, your choice of two nibble dishes to share, plus a £100 food and drink credit and 10% off a Penn Croft Wine Tasting & Tour - all for just £365. Visit redlionodiham.co.uk and keep an eye out on socials for your chance to win a Pinot & Pyjamas stay!

With thanks, as always to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is none other than Blur bassist, Alex James.

Blur formed in 1988 and their nine studio albums have all topped the charts in the UK, generating numerous hit singles along the way including Song 2, Beetlebum and Coffee & TV.

Now you may be wondering why a member of one of the most successful and influential bands of the 90s would come on a podcast about English wine but I assure you, there is good reason!

Following a hugely successful career with Blur, and as a songwriter and producer for other big-name artists, Alex somewhat stepped away from the limelight in the early noughties when he moved to the country with his wife, Claire, and set up a cheese farm.

This 200 acre estate in The Cotswolds now plays host to The Big Feastival, which brings together over 75,000 people across three days in August to celebrate good food, good music and good times.

What goes down well at festivals? Cider of course. And in 2019, Alex launched his first sparkling medium dry cider, which he aptly named BritPop.

Last year he threw a bit of a curve ball into the mix and launched an English Sparkling Wine, also under the Britpop name and made with grapes grown on the Furleigh Estate in Dorset, the county where Alex was born and bred.

He has now added an English sparkling rosé and elderflower wine spritzer to the range and I can attest to the fact they all go brilliantly well with his award-winning cheeses!

We talk about crisps as canapés, drinking Champagne for breakfast and what dream person Alex would love to share a glass of Britpop with.

The Britpop collection is available from laithwaites.co.uk and you can book tickets to The Big Feastival (which takes place between 23rd to 25th August 2024) at thebigfeastival.com.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Will Perkins, winemaker for Louis Pommery England, the English project under the Vranken-Pommery portfolio, which has planted 35-hectares of vines on the Pinglestone Estate in Hampshire.

Having grown up in Hampshire, just outside Winchester, Will has fond memories of formative years in the county and it was here that his first work in wine began – helping out at Hattingley Valley vineyard during his school holidays.

Travelling to South Africa to study History, Politics and Spanish at university in Cape Town, a career in English viticulture wasn’t hugely on his radar. But when he returned to England, a harvest cellar hand position at Hattingly presented itself. Soon Will had embarked on a degree in Viticulture and was promoted to Assistant Winemaker at Hattingley.

After five years, an unrelenting quest to explore, experiment and experience further afield saw him leave his home county once again and spend time working on pioneering projects across the globe, from California to Central Otago and from the Adelaide Hills to the Yarra Valley.

Now with his feet firmly back on home soil, Will describes joining Pinglestone Estate in 2022 as an opportunity to ‘reconnect with the land and community that runs through his being.”

You can keep up to date with developments at Pinglestone Estate by following @louispommeryengland on Instagram.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is winemaker Charlie Holland.

Charlie worked his first vintage in Australia some 24 years ago and caught the wine bug. He returned to England and immediately enrolled at the renowned Plumpton College in Sussex.

While there he worked part-time at nearby Ridgeview wine estate before heading off to do winemaking stints in California, Germany and New Zealand.

In 2009 he took on a full-time winemaking role back home at Ridgeview, before being offered the position of Head Winemaker at Gusbourne in 2013 – that role expanded to CEO just three years later.

However, last year Charlie announced he was leaving this prestigious role to join California-based wine company, Jackson Family Wines, and help spearhead the brand’s own English wine venture, which has included the planting of vines in Essex’s Crouch Valley.

He joins me from the edge of said vineyard in Essex, having just moments earlier planted the last vine in the current phase of this English wine venture to talk about the evolution of winemaking in Kent & Sussex over the past decade, the future for grapes in Essex and why, sometimes, beer is better than wine.

To find out more about what the new Essex vineyard and what's next for Jackson Family Wines' English adventure, follow @jacksonfamilywines on instagram or visit jacksonfamilywines.com.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Welcome back to Series 10 of The English wine Diaries. Joining me on the first episode of this series are Katie and Umut Yesil from Riverview Crouch Valley Vineyard in Essex.

Prior to planting their vineyard in the now famed Crouch Valley, the couple ran a food and drink PR business in London, but following a conversation around the kitchen table with Katie’s father Billy – a third generation arable farmer – they decided to focus their attention on English wine.

In 2017 they set about converting 11 acres of land on the family farm into a vineyard, planting the traditional Champagne varieties of Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Pinot Meunier with a view to make sparkling wine.

However, when the grapes from their first harvest in 2020 came back with incredible sugar levels, they decided to produce single varietal still Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. These have already received rave reviews from wine critics and have been placed in fine dining restaurants across the UK.

We talk about English still versus sparkling wine, winning rave reviews for their wines and what might be the future for winekmaking in Essex's Crouch Valley.

Keep up to date with news from Katie and Umut by following @riverviewcrouchvalley and buy their wines at riverviewcrouchvalley.com.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10. Please drink responsibly.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.

Joining me on today’s episode of The English Wine Diaries is Art Tukker, owner of Tinwood Estate in West Sussex.

The Tukker family farm, which is situated in the hamlet of Halnacker, near Chichester, has a history of growing lettuce but when Art took over in 2006, he had other ideas.

While studying agriculture and farming at university, it dawned on Art that growing vines could be his family’s future and, after spending some time working at vineyards in New Zealand, returned to Sussex and set about planting the three classic Champagne varieties.

Fast forward 18 years and the Tinwood estate now has 110 acres under vine and harvests between three and four hundred tonnes of grapes each year.

As well as touring the vineyards and sampling Tinwood’s award-winning sparkling wine, visitors to the estate can also stay the night in one of the three – very soon to be eight – luxury lodges.

And once a year Art and his team host a sell-out summer party, where guests dance among the vines to the sound of top DJs, accompanied by fabulous street food and, of course, plenty of English sparkling wine.

We talk about how Art transitioned his family farm from producing salad to wine, the challenges he faced in the early days and why Tinwood is all about making English sparkling wine and the vineyard experience inclusive for everyone.

To find out more about Tinwood Estate, visit tinwoodestate.com or follow @tinwoodestatevineyard on Instagram or @TinwoodEstate on Facebook.

With thanks to our series sponsor, Wickhams, The Great British Wine Merchant. Visit wickhamwine.co.uk to see their award-winning range of English wine with free delivery on orders over £40. The English Wine Diaries listeners can also get 10% discount on their first purchase by entering the code TEWD10.

Thanks for listening to The English Wine Diaries. If you enjoyed the podcast then please leave a rating or review, it helps boost our ratings and makes it easier for other people to find us. To find out who will be joining me next on the English Wine Diaries, follow @theenglishwinediaries on Instagram and for more regular English wine news and reviews, sign up to our newsletter at thesouthernquarter.co.uk.