Norfolk vineyard up for sale
Chet Valley Vineyard, located eight miles south of Norwich, is on the market with a guide price of £1.65 million. The post Norfolk vineyard up for sale appeared first on The Drinks Business.
Chet Valley Vineyard, located eight miles south of Norwich, is on the market with a guide price of £1.65 million.
Norfolk is not always the first place one thinks of when contemplating English vineyards – Sussex, Kent and Essex tend to receive more attention – but Nelson's County is far from a viticultural wilderness, with a number of producers making a go of winemaking there. Among these pioneers were John and Bridget Hemmant, who planted the vines at Chet Valley Vineyard in 2010. John's great uncle, Fred, used to keep horses on the land, something which the winery website claims has "imbued the soil with great organic content". Today, where once there were mares trotting about, the land is planted with varieties including Pinot Noir, Meunier and Chardonnay, as well as more obscure ones such as Schönburger (a crossing) and Seyval Blanc (a hybrid). However, the couple has now called it time on the project in Bergh Apton, as John, who plans to retire, told the Eastern Daily Press: "Obviously it is a massive decision for me, because I built this up from scratch, planted the vines, built the buildings and produced the wines." "What I would like is for someone to take it on who has a keen interest and some experience of wine production, obviously capital to buy it, but also capital to put into it," he continued. "Also, we are at a stage where distribution is really important. We concentrate on the local market, the vast majority of our wine goes into Norfolk, so ideally it would be someone with experience of distributing wine, and can move it to the next stage of distribution across the UK, and possibly the export market. That is where we would like it to go." The vineyard, covering approximately seven hectares, the winery and bottling line as well as a three bedroom property converted from a stable (called 'Vine House') are on sale through local estate agent Brown & Co for a guide price of £1.65m, around 5.7 times the price of an average house in Norwich (£291,828, according to Rightmove).
