PETER HALL warned me about the drive to Breaky Bottom vineyard in rural East Sussex. ‘Don’t worry if you get lost,’ he said over the telephone the week before. ‘It’s fine; we’ll just assume you’ll be late.’
I was late. In a hollow of the South Downs National Park, combed by Champagne-style vines, a flint farmhouse is flanked by a vegetable garden, a pond full of tadpoles and 35 nest boxes for barn, tawny and little owls. The first vines here were planted in 1974, after Mr Hall saw an advertisement for Seyval Blanc in a gardening magazine, and they’re still there, beneath fields with a hobby flock of Suffolk-Mule sheep, separated from the English Channel by a few undulating green hills. The wine writer Oz Clarke has called it the most beautiful vineyard in Britain.
Breaky Bottom produces between zero and 15,000 bottles a year: zero because, sometimes, an entire crop is lost to flooding, caused by soil erosion and hedge removal on neighbouring farms, or is eaten by pheasants released for commercial shoots. ‘I’m not against pheasants,’ explains Mr Hall, ‘or shooting for the pot, but we do have a responsibility to the land.’ The winemaker and his artist wife, Christina, allow the growth of tall grasses in their pastures, which act as a shelter for the rodents that feed the owls. The sheep are let loose to graze in the vineyards before first growth, enriching the soil with their manure.
Denne historien er fra May 19, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra May 19, 2021-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Kitchen garden cook - Apples
'Sweet and crisp, apples are the epitome of autumn flavour'
The original Mr Rochester
Three classic houses in North Yorkshire have come to the market; the owner of one inspired Charlotte Brontë to write Jane Eyre
Get it write
Desks, once akin to instruments of torture for scribes, have become cherished repositories of memories and secrets. Matthew Dennison charts their evolution
'Sloes hath ben my food'
A possible paint for the Picts and a definite culprit in tea fraud, the cheek-suckingly sour sloe's spiritual home is indisputably in gin, says John Wright
Souvenirs of greatness
FOR many years, some large boxes have been stored and forgotten in the dark recesses of the garage. Unpacked last week, the contents turned out to be pots: some, perhaps, nearing a century old—dense terracotta, of interesting provenance.
Plants for plants' sake
The garden at Hergest Croft, Herefordshire The home of Edward Banks The Banks family is synonymous with an extraordinary collection of trees and shrubs, many of which are presents from distinguished friends, garnered over two centuries. Be prepared to be amazed, says Charles Quest-Ritson
Capturing the castle
Seventy years after Christian Dior’s last fashion show in Scotland, the brand returned under creative director Maria Grazia Chiuri for a celebratory event honouring local craftsmanship, the beauty of the land and the Auld Alliance, explains Kim Parker
Nature's own cathedral
Our tallest native tree 'most lovely of all', the stately beech creates a shaded environment that few plants can survive. John Lewis-Stempel ventures into the enchanted woods
All that money could buy
A new book explores the lost riches of London's grand houses. Its author, Steven Brindle, looks at the residences of plutocrats built by the nouveaux riches of the late-Victorian and Edwardian ages
In with the old
Diamonds are meant to sparkle in candlelight, but many now gather dust in jewellery boxes. To wear them today, we may need to reimagine them, as Hetty Lintell discovers with her grandmother's jewellery
