All Angels vineyard in Enborne celebrating wine success
An Enborne vineyard is celebrating a successful month for three of its wines.
All Angels, which makes wine exclusively from grapes grown across six hectares on its three vineyards at Church Farm, is owned by Mark Darley and is playing an increasingly big part in the British wine industry that saw 9.3m bottles sold last year.
All Angels – named after the 12th century church which overlooks the vines – also has a thriving wine club, with around 450 members, and is sold worldwide in countries such as France, Hong Kong, the Bahamas and Switzerland.
“Our wines are appearing in more local places now too,” Mr Darley said. “We have started supplying The Watermill this week.
“This industry [UK wine industry] is going from strength to strength.”
He planted his first vines in 2011 and since then has created award-winning single vintage sparkling wines. And now this month Decanter Magazine has included All Angels Classic Cuvée 2014 in its recommendations for Best English Wines to try this autumn, giving it a score of 92 points.
At the same time Great British Wine nominated All Angels Classic Cuvée 2015 as its wine of the month, describing it as “the most accomplished release from the increasingly promising Berkshire producer to date”.
One of the company’s sparkling rosés has also been included in the Top Hundred Wines at The Vineyard & Winery Show.
Within the next few weeks around 240 cider apple trees are going to be planted at one of the vineyards, along with a wildflower area and nature ponds, as Mr Darley’s key focus for the vineyard is to ensure it is sustainable.
A study at the site by students from the University of Exeter found seven different species of bat, including two “very rare” ones. Deer, badger, hare, carp, otter and owls are also regularly seen at the farm.
“It’s all part of encouraging nature and sustainability,” he said. “We will have 23 tonnes of carbon capture per year here.
“There will always be a living part of the field that will not be touched to allow nature to flourish.
“We are here for a short time and we need to leave the land in a better place than we got it.”