Ridgeview wine-makers – a fruitful business

 

 

 

20 years ago, Tamara’s father decided he wanted to buy a vineyard and make wine. Her parents had no experience in wine making but being entrepreneurial – they had just sold another business – after much research, advice and meticulous planning, they set up the business. 

 

Their vision was to create a premium English sparkling wine, something of a rarity in the mid 90’s as most of the wine drunk in the UK was of a light Germanic style (does anyone remember those?!). Up until that point the sparkling wine market was led by Champagne and any drinking of English wine was more of an act of patriotism, rather than it being a good wine in itself.

 

The company decided to use a ‘traditional’ wine-making method, as used by French wine-makers in that the wine is fermented twice; they press the grapes, ferment the wine, and then ferment again in the bottle. 

 

The climate in the south east contributes to the good quality of the grapes. Having comparatively cool English summers with long days and 9-10 hours of sunlight with the hottest time of the day around 4pm leads to a high level of acidity which creates the fizz. 

 

Tamara recounted the hilarious (if slightly blurry) account, of a prestigious wine award event in London which the 10 Ridgeview employees attended. Not expecting to win anything (they were placed on the balcony which underlined this assumption) they proceeded to ‘let their hair down’ and enjoy the one wine per course dining experience. To their surprise they won several awards at which point Tamara’s father and brother had to then to navigate the stairs to collect the awards!  

 

This was the turning point in the business, their profile was raised, and their reputation strengthened as a highly regarded maker of sparkling wine. The awards began to come thick and fast, leading to growth into the US, northern Europe and Scandinavia.

 

Ridgeview currently produce a certain amount of stock, and like any other successful business, have a target market so sometimes have to say ‘no’ to potential opportunities. This scarcity works in their favour; who doesn’t want to spend a little more on a limited edition bottle of wine?

 

Despite the challenges of climate change, the weather, and Brexit (implications on the cost of the machinery (French) and manpower complications (employing staff from the winemaking community from Romania and Portugal) business is flourishing. In addition to selling well the UK (particularly in the south east and London) Ridgeview’s US market has grown from 2 states to all across the US.

 

If you want to visit Ridgeview, they are open for wine-tasting every day of the week all throughout the year, but the best time to visit is between April, when you will see the new leaves on the vines, to September, when you will see the grapes. You can also book a variety of tours, and corporate events.

 

In proving themselves to be world class wine-makers the folk at Ridgeview are now seeing the fruit of their passion, determination and dedication.