Albury Organic Vineyard is situated on the southern slopes of the North Downs in the Surrey Hills just outside Guildford on the A25 towards Dorking.

The vineyard comprises around 4.25 hectares (13 acres) planted with the traditional Champagne varietals of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. We will be producing English wine of the highest quality; a still rosé in 2012 and a sparkling wine which should be available for sale in 2014.

We are committed to producing organic fruit without the use of chemicals such as herbicides and fungicides. Whilst copper and sulphur are permitted in organic vineyards we have decided to avoid them. Instead we are using compost teas, which improve the biology of the soil and can prevent disease such as mildew and botrytis. We believe that this approach, encouraging the natural biology of the land, will produce premium fruit and therefore a better quality wine.

The vineyard is privately owned by Nick Wenman who lives in Albury near to the vineyard.

The vineyard is managed by Alex Valsecchi who until recently was at at RHS Wisley responsible for the Orchard, Nursery, Model Fruit Area and the Vineyard. Alex has extensive experience in Vineyard Management having created the vineyard at Wisley following several years practical experience working on vineyards in New Zealand.

The following consultants are providing us with expert advice:

Stephen Skelton MW

Stephen started his career in wine in 1975. After 12 months at Schloss Schönborn in Germany’s Rheingau winegrowing region and two terms at Geisenheim Wine School, he returned to the UK in 1977 to establish Tenterden Vineyards in Kent (now the home of the UK’s largest wine producer, Chapel Down) where he made wine for 23 vintages. He was also winemaker at Lamberhurst Vineyards, then the UK’s largest wine producer, between 1988 and 1991.

He became a Master of Wine in 2003 and won the prestigious Mondavi Prize for the highest marks in the written part of the examination. In 2005 he was awarded the AXA Millésimes award for his contribution to the work of the MW Education Committee. In 2009 he was elected to the Council of the Masters of Wine. He also lectures for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust at Diploma level and runs tastings for students and consumers.

Stephen is a consultant to the English wine industry and is involved with planting vineyards for the production of sparkling wine. Since 1986 he has written and lectured widely on English wine and has published four guides to UK vineyards. In 2001 he won the André Simon award for ‘Wine Book of the Year’.

John Buchan – Agronomist

Having been formally trained and qualified in General Agriculture and Farm and Business Management and qualifying as a FACTS advisor, John spent 20 years managing farms in Kent and Shropshire. He then joined Stoller Ltd., a specialist agricultural nutritional company, to concentrate on nutrition . After 4 years at Stoller he joined Stefes Ltd., an agrochemical company, to help expand their range and market penetration of their nutritional products. After 4 years at Stefes he returned to Stoller to continue working on nutrition.

Since November 2002 John has been running his own business, John Buchan Agronomy, focusing on all aspects of vineyard agronomy, from site selection to full growing programmes. More recently John has specialised in organic and biodynamic vineyards.

Laverstoke Park Farm – Organic Microbiology

Soil biology is often neglected in viticulture but is critical to a healthy vineyard environment and quality grape production. Laverstoke Park Farm which is a 2000 acre bio-dynamic farm in Hampshire owned by the former racing driver Jodu Scheckter. It has established the only licensed Soil Foodweb Laboratory in Europe and their lab studies the activity of different groups of beneficial micro-organisms in the soil.

The team at Laverstoke analyses our soil and vines and make recommendations as to the compost teas we should use to improve the biology of the soil and to prevent disease such as mildew and botrytis.