Bolney Wine Estate Opens New Winery

Bolney Wine Estate opens new winery, helping it to meet its target of increasing production of English wines by 170% within the next three years.

• During this harvest, approximately 270 tonnes of grapes will be processed through the new winery.
• 300,000 bottles of premium wine will be produced by Bolney Wine Estate by 2022 in the new winery.

One of the leading producers of English wines, Bolney Wine Estate has officially opened its new, state-of-the-art winery this week, allowing the third-generation family business to increase its production of premium still and sparkling wines by 170% within the next three-years. Built in time for the 2019 harvest, the new winery is one part of an ambitious expansion plan led by Managing Director and Head Winemaker of Bolney Wine Estate, Sam Linter, which will help the Sussex-based Estate to meet their target of producing more than 300,000 bottles of premium still and sparkling wines by 2022.

Sam says the September opening of the new winery has been strategically timed with the autumn harvest and also closely follows the Estate’s merger with neighbouring vineyard, Pookchurch earlier this year. “The opening of our new winery is perfectly timed to ensure that we can process more of our grapes than ever before and as efficiently as possible. This is especially important following our merger with Pookchurch vineyard in January which saw us form a 104-acre Estate, which will see us produce 300 tonnes of grapes annually. The physical expansion, paired with the hard-work, passion from the team and the building of strong partnerships is key to the future-proofing of our Estate – ensuring that we can continue to produce and refine our award-winning still and sparkling wines for many years to come.”

The new state of the art winery harnesses new technologies and equipment to effectively increase its production of still and sparkling wines, the new winery will be equipped with an additional new wine press to improve the effectiveness and speed at which it processes its grapes. Partly financed by a grant from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development, the new winery has the potential to produce 500,000 bottles of wine. In a move to further strengthen its sustainable practices, Bolney Wine Estate has also installed solar panels on its new winery and across its main building, cafe and office – helping to reduce its reliance on the national grid by 30%.