We first planted a vineyard in Northampton, England
We have always been in love with France, we even planted a vineyard in the UK
in an attempt to bring France to us, prior to moving there.
We planted 4 types of grapes: 2 White varieties - Solaris & Phoenix and 2 red varieties - Ronda & Regent.
We learnt to make a delicious white wine,
however red wine needs more sunshine than England could offer -
The time had come to move to France !
Here's our 2.2 hctr (nearly organic) vineyard in France
Our gently sloping vineyard is located close to the Gironde estuary and provides a good diversity of soils and minerals and is currently planted with Merlot and Cabernet Franc vines. The Merlot enjoy the deeper clay and limestone soil, while the Cabernet Franc express themselves well in the deep sandy loamy soils of the higher end of the vineyard.
Early days at Chateau La Grande Etouble
In 2013, when an opportunity arose to move to France, we were delighted to purchase a small 2.2 hectare vineyard in the appellation of Cotes de Bourg, which is located within the world famous wine region of Bordeaux.
Starting work on the vineyard 2015
When our French home was finished, it was time to concentrate on our vineyard. The current vines were planted in approximately 1975 and so were over 40 years old by then. The whole vineyard and vines required a great deal of TLC.
Wine Chai and Barrel Room
Once we had taken over the vineyard we started to create a Chai for our wine production and a cellar for our barrel wine.
By September 2016 Ben had created a new wine chai and cellar.
2016 - 2017
We began to slowly and carefully convert our "vineyard garden" into a totally self supporting, natural environment or "terrior"
as its called here in France.
We also introduced a new pruning method called "Pussard" pruning. We believe this single change has greatly improved the life expectancy and well being of our older vines.
2018 - 2019
In order to further improve our vineyard, we removed 0.6 hectares of our vines. We are replanting these areas with Malbec and Petit Verdot from MASSALE SELECTION in 2021.
In the meantime, these areas are planted with wild flowers and green manures which provide a welcoming home for insects, birds and animals, together with auxiliary fauna. Soft soil cultivation, annual sowing of green manures, spraying of manures, concoctions and preparations are used to improve and revitalise the whole terroir
2020 - 2021
Our aim is to produce SMALL CUVEES of unique boutique wine; desirable & limited cuves with a beautiful bouquet, good acidity, well balanced with soft velvety tannins.
Our vineyard is registered with ECOCERT with 2019 vintage being labelled as
 “IN CONVERTION”, with the fully organic label
being applied in 2021.