News

New English vineyard pops up in Suffolk

03 August 2022 By Eloise Feilden

Burnt House Vineyard in Suffolk, which has been operating as a commercial vineyard since 2017, is set to launch its own range of still and sparkling English wines.

New English vineyard pops up n Suffolk

The main vineyard is situated on a south-facing slope, and consists of the three Champagne varieties – Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier and Chardonnay.

Established in 2017, the English vineyard is planted over a total of 8.9 hectares with 46,000 vines, and produces grapes for traditional method sparkling wine as well as still wines.

Operated by Stuart, Jill, James and Catherine Scarff, the vineyard is set to launch with an event open to the public on 6 August.

The family further planted a small vineyard of Bacchus in 2019, used to produce the first wine launched by Burnt House this summer, Burnt House Bacchus 2021.

Family member Catherine Scarff has taken on a key role in looking after the tasting room. Alongside her job at a record label in London, Scarff has undertaken her WSET and courses at Plumpton College to prepare for the new venture.

Scarff told the East Anglian Daily Times that the family is looking to expand the still wine range and hopes to slowly release sparkling wines once adequately aged.

She said: “We bottled out 2021 Bacchus which is really really nice. And we’ve also got some of our own sparkling wine in the cellars aging (ready late 2023 or early 2024). I want to expand this year with a sparkling rose and some more stills – maybe a still rose.”

In other news, unprecedented and detailed new research offers insight for potential investors into exactly where to buy vineyards in England and why, with temperatures and harvest conditions forecast up until 2040.

By 2040, temperatures are predicted to climb by a further 1.4°C, which the researchers say is good news for diversifying English wine. Read more on that here.

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