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Davenport Vineyards |
< Davenport Vineyards
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Davenport Vineyards |
In 1991 Will Davenport planted 5 acres of vines at Horsmonden in Kent, while simultaneously working for a Hampshire vineyard and, unintentionally, this became the beginning of a life-long business as a wine producer.There are now 24 acres of vineyards, growing 9 grape varieties mainly in Horsmonden in Kent, with a smaller vineyard next to their winery at Rotherfield, East Sussex.
The vines are managed by Phil Harris, archaeology graduate, Plumpton graduate and enthusiast for hand weeding. Phil is one of the most knowledgeable vineyard managers in English organic wine.
In the winery Will Davenport takes care of the wines with Ben Connor, another Plumpton graduate. Will studied winemaking at Roseworthy Agricultural College in Australia, worked in the London wine trade and has done a variety of stints working in Alsace, California, Australia and the UK before setting up his own winery.
We believe that the route to making the best wines is to work with nature and this has to begin with organic grapes. The fruit then becomes a true expression of the grape variety and the soil that it grows in. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides are there to make life easy for the vineyard manager, but often result in wine that lacks character and balance. Some of the chemicals have been proven to leave a residue in the wine that the customer drink. In 2000 we made the decision to convert all the vines and winery to organic systems, certified by the Soil Association. The vines are now in great shape, the fruit quality is second to none, and the wines show a depth of character that we believe could not be achieved with the use of chemicals in the vineyard and winery.
n 2022 they took on the management of a much larger farm, owned by Will's mother. This includes 43 acres of non-organic vineyards and 70 acres of apple orchards. The non-organic grapes are sold to another winery and the plan is to move the management towards being organic over a period of 5 years, giving the established vines and the soil time to adjust.
The winery is at our East Sussex site in Rotherfield and is capable of making up to 70,000 bottles of wine per year. Our own production is around 40,000 bottles, depending of the weather and crop yield each year.
We believe that the route to making the best wines is to work with nature and this has to begin with organic grapes. The fruit then becomes a true expression of the grape variety and the soil that it grows in. Chemical fertilisers and pesticides are there to make life easy for the vineyard manager, but often result in wine that lacks character and balance. Some of the chemicals have been proven to leave a residue in the wine that the customer drinks.
Everything we do has some impact on the environment, including making wine. We try to make our wines with as little energy as possible, mostly generated on site by solar panels. We also consider the footprint of every aspect, from grapes to water consumption and packaging. We are working to be 100% plastic-free this year. Our bottles are lighter weight than most wine bottles, the cork is natural cork from Portugal, the label is FSC certified paper, the carton is made from 100% recycled board and any couriter packaging is fully recyclable.
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