The Vineyards
With its fine soils, mild climate and long history of fruit growing, the Weald of Kent is the home to the finest vineyards planted in the UK in the last 50 years. Recently, with warmer growing conditions making the production of quality sparkling wines a reality, France's best known Champagne houses have begun to cast an enviable eye on the UK. And so, Balfour's vineyards were conceived.
The vineyard sites were chosen for their southerly aspect and shelter from the prevailing south westerly winds both of which help the grapes to capture the maximum amount of sunshine to grow and ripen. The characteristic Wealden Clay that overlies the Tunbridge Wells sands also give the vines ideal conditions for establishment and fruiting with enough moisture even in dry seasons.
"Nestled behind an apple orchard set to the backdrop of an ancient oak forest and the historic Hush Heath Manor, nature works its magic in silence."
Richard Balfour-Lynn
One of the early plants, Spring 2002
A large bunch of Pinot Noir grapes glistening in the sunshine, September 2006.
Harvesting the grapes by hand, Autumn 2004
First steps
Richard Balfour-Lynn was helped in planning and establishing the vineyard by Stephen Skelton MW, one of the UK's leading viticultural consultants.
The initial 4.14 acre (1.6765ha) vineyard at Hush Heath Estate was hand-planted in the Spring of 2002 on a gently south-facing slope, once home to an orchard of old Bramley apple trees.
The whole site was tile-drained to improve early spring conditions and bring the vines into leaf as soon as possible. The topsoil was meticulously prepared to break up compacted areas and remove any old tree roots.
In Spring 2007 it was expanded by an additional 0.74 acres (0.3014ha) on an adjoining field.
New Vineyard in 2008
May 2008 has seen the planting of an additional 7.6 acres (3.0702ha) of vines, bringing the total up to 12.5 acres (5.0481ha). The new vineyard has been planted with the same varieties and in the same proportions that have proved so successful in the existing vineyards.
The new vines were machine-planted using the latest laser-guided planting machine and will be trained and trellised on the same VSP system as used in the other vineyards.
Varieties
The three classic Champagne varieties and clones selected were those that most suited the cool UK climate. There are two clones of each of the three varieties and each clone is on two different rootstocks. The encépagement of the vineyard is 45% Chardonnay, 45% Pinot Noir and 10% Pinot Meunier, a combination chosen to give the best results: Chardonnay for structure and acidity, Pinot Noir for fruit and perfume and Pinot Meunier for an added spiciness in the blend. Having a total of 12 clones and rootstock combinations will ensure that climatic variations are avoided as far as possible, with different clones performing better in some years and vice versa.
Creating the perfect crop
The vines are grown on a standard vertical shoot positioned (VSP) trelliswork, spaced at 2.30m row width and 1.30m between the vines. This gives a vine density of 3,344 per hectare (1,354/acre), which in UK growing conditions, has been shown to give the best balance of fruit to leaf for optimum ripeness. The vines are pruned to a two-cane horizontal Guyot system with an overall trellis height of around 2.00m.
The vines and grapes are kept clean and healthy with the minimum of spraying and no insecticides are used at all. In some years, some of the smaller bunches of grapes are removed to keep the vines in balance and limit yields.
Harvesting
Towards harvest, limited de-leafing is undertaken in the fruit zone to open up the leaf-wall and allow heat and light to penetrate to fully ripen the grapes. Fruit samples are taken to assess sugar and acid levels so that harvesting takes place when the grapes have reached optimum ripeness. Harvesting is done by hand and pickers are careful to avoid damaged or diseased grapes or those showing under-ripe characteristics. They also try not to eat all the grapes before they are taken to the winery at Chapel Down where the next stage of the méthode Champenoise begins.