The estate
Our Story
What began as an idea is now an award-winning, flourishing ten-acre vineyard in the Stour Valley, producing estate-grown English wines from one of Suffolk's most distinctive landscapes.
The vineyard
South-facing slopes of the Stour Valley.
Higham sits on the north side of the valley facing south in an area of outstanding natural beauty. It was this aspect that attracted us to the idea of starting our vineyard originally. Further investigation revealed soil that was predominantly sand and stone based with a layer of humus above and testing also showed a neutral PH which was encouraging.
Planting
The choice of grape
The choice of grape was influenced by personal taste as much as by commercial considerations - a preference for red Burgundy and Provence rosé. Subsequent soil tests and advice indicated that the land was suitable for Pinot Noir vines, which is what was planted in 2019.
Later in 2023 over an acre of Chardonnay vines were planted for blending with the Pinot Noir, for our sparkling cuveé.
2021
The First Challenge
The first challenge was to grow quality grapes in sufficient quantities to produce 2,500 bottles of sparkling rosé from the harvest of 2021, the vines' third summer.
Conditions that year weren’t particularly favourable but by mid October the sugar levels had risen sufficiently with enough acidity remaining for us to start picking by hand. We were full of trepidation initially but it largely went to plan and we were then on our way. A couple of weeks later we picked some selected rows with the aim of gathering a ton of Pinot Noir with sufficient sugar level to make a trial barrel of still red.
The planting
From six acres to ten.
Originally started in 2019 with just six acres of Pinot Noir vines with a selection of clones for sparkling and still wines, we then followed up with over two acres of Pinot Noir still red clones and a further 1.4 acres of Chardonnay for still white and blending for sparkling wines.
Clones:
Pinot Noir: F105, WE M1, GM 1-53, GM 20-13, INRA 777, Binova 943
Chardonnay: INRA 95