Our wine is the realisation of a 20-year dream to grow grapes at Birling.
A dream that has taken many years of building and restoring the estate to enable it to happen.
The vineyard covers 40 acres of south-facing chalky slopes nestled in a perfect spot under the North Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
The wine from our first harvest is a wonderful blush-pink sparkling Pet-Nat, crafted by our friends at Westwell Wines. Something fun whilst we wait for our classic sparkling wine to mature.
It’s perfectly suited to the outdoors summer season, whether it’s a picnic, BBQ or just a drink in the sun.
It’s wine folks. There to be enjoyed with those you love.
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But if you want the philosophy and background, please do read on.
what’s in a name?
We have named our first wine ‘Wilde Birle’. This came from some research into the old English origins of the name ‘Birling’, and our natural style of wine. It seems it was meant to be.
Wilde – (noun) – ‘in a natural or low intervention state; of fermentation, occurring with wild yeast.’
Birle – (verb) – ‘to serve wine; to drink merrily in good company’
STORY/SITE
Our land has been calling out to be planted with vines for many years. It is the perfect south-facing slope sitting on the same chalk that extends to France.
After interest in our land from various wine houses, we agreed the first share-farming contract in the UK with Westwell Wine Estate and established the vineyard together in 2023.
THE WINE
Pet Nat (short for pétillant naturel, French for “naturally sparkling”) is a style of lightly sparkling wine. It is made using the méthode ancestrale (ancestral method), which predates Champagne.
Unlike Champagne, it is bottled before its first fermentation finishes. The remaining sugars continue to ferment inside the sealed bottle, creating natural bubbles. Ours is made using wild yeast from the vineyard with minimal intervention.
In the coming years we will be producing both still and classic English sparkling wine.
ECOSYSTEM & PHILOSOPHY
Our approach is grounded in place.
We believe that wine is the ultimate expression of land; delivered through the perfect balance of nature, science and culture.
The vineyard is part of our wider estate ecosystem. Connecting to ancient woodland, rare chalk-grassland, chalk streams and the North Kent Woods and Downs National Nature Reserve.
Nature thrives on diversity and so our approach is to encourage this where we can. The alleys are planted with a multi-species mix of grasses, clovers and legumes to improve the soil. The multi-species windbreaks provide further biodiversity corridors connecting to the chalk-loving wildflowers above.
This boost to life means the vineyard is full of the sound of skylarks with the odd red-kite wheeling overhead.
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