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During the first week of May 2022, Simpsons’ Wine Estate planted a third vineyard site, almost ten years after Co-Founders, Ruth and Charles Simpson, first established their English wine venture in the heart of the garden of England.
Bonny Bush Hill Vineyard is located less than two miles from our state-of-the-art winery, amid the pristine beauty of the Elham Valley. The proximity of the vines to the winery has always been of the utmost importance to the Simpsons, who believe it is crucial to ensure minimal transportation and manipulation of the grapes during the harvest period.
In keeping with our other vineyard sites, this new plantation is situated on chalk terroir, so highly revered in the world of both still and sparkling wine and so important in the distinctive profile of the highly-acclaimed Simpsons’ wine portfolio.
Over two days, 35,000 Chardonnay vines were planted, split across four specially-selected Burgundian still wine clones, which will further increase the production of the Estate’s exquisite still wines that showcase this noble variety.
This new eight-hectare (22 acre) site will enable the Estate to fully meet the demand for our award-winning still wines, which have already delighted palates and garnered awards locally, nationally and internationally, with huge interest from export markets, including Norway, Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan and even Australia.
Charles Simpson comments, “We are thrilled to be in a position to plant an additional eight hectares of vines at this juncture in our business journey. The past decade has seen an incredible expansion of our initial aspiration to establish a purely Classic Method English sparkling wine business. Having now created a highly regarded range of still wines, we are delighted with the direction that Simpsons’ Wine Estate has taken and are exceptionally proud of the incredible work and dedication of our talented team.”
Ruth Simpson adds, “It has been wonderful to be able to establish a new vineyard site so close to our winery and in such a prime position on the same chalk-rich soil. We are 100% committed to promoting and preserving this Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, in which we are located, with support and guidance from the Wines of Great Britain Sustainability Scheme and also the Walpole Sustainability Manifesto. The plantation of Bonny Bush Hill adds to our tenth anniversary celebrations and we look forward to all that the next decade will bring for Simpsons’ Wine Estate.”
The Simpsons planted the first 10 hectares of Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir on our Roman Road vineyard site in 2014. A further 20 hectares of the same three grape varieties were established on Railway Hill, to the south of Barham village during 2016 and 2017.
The Estate recently reached a major milestone with the release of the first non-vintage version of the award-winning Chalklands Classic Cuvée. We are also about to release the first of our 2021 still wines and our Events Team is enjoying being able to welcome visitors to the Estate for another popular tourism season. For more details about our Experiences, click here...
