Ridgeview Wine Estate. East Sussex.
2019-2020.
Ridgeview Wine Estate is a family-owned winery in the South East of England producing sparkling wines of the utmost quality. Their commitment to sustainability has earned them the B Corp Certificate for meeting high standards in environmental and social practices.
In 2019 they commissioned me with what would be a year-round documentary of all the activity around the vineyard following the natural cycle of the vines and the labour involved.
What we didn’t know was that in spring, we would be forced to stay home so the project stopped for a few months; At the same time and to make things even worse, the UK was being led out of the EU. This presented a huge challenge for the vineyard since no labour was available for harvest making this project a little more exigent since we had to learn how to continue on the story.
Ridgeview pride themselves on their innovative contributions to the English wine industry, this pioneering approach made them find ethical and sustainable solutions to this huge challenge and harvest was a success.
This photo-essay documents the activity during harvest following the local community, friends, colleagues, family and all of those who got involved to make the 2020 vintage a success.
As an established leader in the winemaking industry, they work together with a diverse number of educational institutions and NGOs offering opportunities to those interested in agricultural and viticultural practices.
Photography begings early in the winter of 2019. Ridgeview's Vineyard & Estate Manager Matt Strugnell prunes the vines assessing their health and getting them ready to withstand the winter period.
The local community is getting involved to help with harvest. Neighbours, fellow wine makers, viticulture students and anyone with spare time in their hands comes to help. New procedures are in place which minimize the physical impact on the labour. It looks like this is the future for a sustainable, community based labour on the vineyards where physical and mental health are the priority.
Harvest 2020 begins
Harvest in East Sussex
While volunteers manually cut the grapes, the vineyard team carries out most of the labour intensive tasks carrying buckets filled with grapes to a tractor that moves up and down between the vines collecting the grapes. This has reduced the walking distances significantly.
For the first time in 18 months the winery receives press and media guests who are curious to learn what Ridgeview has done to adapt to the recent conflicts.
The team is very happy they were able to work through harvest considering the restrictions. It has been such a good year in the vineyard and that will reflct in the quality of the wines.
A bunch of Pinot Meunier grapes recently cut. It only takes an hour or so from the grape being cut to them being pressed to start the wine making process.
It's the end of summer in 2021, this time there are no restrictions and harvest is in full swing. However, the country has another challenge to deal with: Brexit! Labour from Europe is not available this year so new ways of working in the vineyard have to be implemented.
The team has been working very hard meeting with other vineyards and getting in touch with the local community to make harvest work for everyone.
On a very positive note, Ridgevew is impressed by the strong female pressence in all labour areas of the vineyard and the winery. It only shows that their commitment and investment in diversity and equal opportunities is paying off.
T-shirts made to motivate the team in the vineyard
Labour continued as normal during the summer period. Yet again, the mood is of disbelief as new restrictions are imposed.
While the vineyard team harvest the white grapes, the winery team starts pressing the red grapes. This is the beginning of the 2021 Vintage.
Late in the afternoon and the team keeps collecting the rest of the white grapes. There's just a few more vine rows to get through.
Every bunch of grapes is manually inspected; those not meeting the minimum quality requirements get thrown back to the field and will become compost for the vines.
White grapes about to get pressed shortly after being collected.
A cheeky taste of the pressed juice.
It's nearly the end of the day on the winery.
I have one last look to the Chardonnay grapes from the UK's first B Corp & sustainability awarded vineyard.
Simon Roberts, head wine-maker and part of the Roberts family who founded Ridgeview Wine Estate in the 1990's proudly holds a bottle of their Oak Reserve released during lockdown.
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