for English wine industry bright future College tour reveals

Plumpton

college in England – complete with its own vineyard, on-site laboratories and commercial winery in Sussex. Fruit & Vine deputy editor Sarah Kidby was invited for a behind-thescenes look at the college’s extensive facilities

One of England’s oldest vineyards

The jam-packed tour of Plumpton’s facilities began at the college’s own Rock Lodge Vineyard in Haywards Heath, where a handful of invited press met vineyard manager Tom Newham. Owing to the very wet weather on the day, which prevented him from bringing a tractor onto the elds, the main tasks being carried out were winter pruning and tying down, with the help of three students.

The 1.6ha eld where the tour began was comprised of a mix of sparkling varieties including Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, with various clones and rootstocks for learning purposes. The eld had not had any disease in the past year and has not used herbicides or insecticides for ve years – though it is not an organic vineyard.

Rock Lodge is also experimenting with new PiWi varieties, which are naturally resistant to disease and therefore require less spraying. Only 50 vines of each variety have been planted for now – not enough for commercial wine production – but there is an interest in planting more in future, which is likely to be a student-led project, Tom said.

Like most growers, Rock Lodge has struggled to acquire labour since Brexit and Covid-19, so much of its harvesting, pruning and spraying is done by students or contractors. Students are generally paired up and given ve rows to look after, which allows them to learn the whole annual cycle, including machine operations, spray regimes, and adapting overseas viticulture practices to the UK. There is also

James Clapham, programme manager for the masters’ course, demonstrated how to test wine samples to ensure they contain the correct level of free SO2 ample opportunity to travel to wine regions such as Champagne and network with industry professionals – but the connections formed between students are also particularly valuable, visitors heard.

Plumpton Wine Division is England’s only degree-level wine college and attracts a wide demographic of students, including those already working in the wine industry and those seeking a career change – ranging in age from 18 all the way up to its oldest master’s student, who is in his 70s. Plumpton also o ers an apprenticeship, currently working with 40 producers who spend three weeks at the college a year as part of the two-year course, which is an 80%/20% split between work and training. The apprenticeship also has a large age range from around 17 up to students in their 50s. Students often progress from vineyard technicians up to management after the course.

A key di culty for the vineyard is the age of many of the vines – with some between 20 and 25 years old. Established around 60 years ago it is one of England’s oldest vineyards and has been continually planted ever since. Part of another eld has been grubbed up and left fallow before it is replanted, to help rejuvenate the soil.

Plumpton has vineyards spanning 10 hectares, producing 40,000 bottles of wine each year across eight di erent labels, sold for both the on-trade and o -trade.

Heading across to the laboratories at Plumpton Wine Division, located around 10.5 miles from the vineyard, visitors met James Clapham, programme manager for the masters’ course. He provided a demonstration on testing wine samples for the correct levels of free sulphur dioxide to protect the wine whilst remaining within legal limits.

Whilst the master’s course requires some background in science, many of those on Plumpton’s undergraduate course are not necessarily from a science background, James explained. Although shorter courses in winemaking are also available at Plumpton, James believes the undergraduate course o ers something extra. “Students come away with a very rich understanding of the science behind winemaking. We have an intensive course on how to be a winemaker, but the degree o ers a much richer and deeper understanding.” This understanding is bene cial for growing the industry and trying new things, as well as understanding why things go wrong, such as spoilage, he added.

The college also has on-site commercial and research wineries, led by winemaker Deepika Koushik, where second-year students work for a minimum of three hours per week. As a teaching environment, the vineyard and winery have more freedom to experiment with di erent techniques and wines than most commercial vineyards, Deepika said.

Visitors were able to sample several of the 11 Plumpton wines (pictured) – and of these, two were developed as part of student projects – a medium sweet Ortega and a sparkling red. Ortega grapes were hand-harvested and transported to the winery where they were destemmed, crushed and pressed. The ferment was tasted daily and stopped at desired residual sugar level by chilling and ltering. Specially selected sweet wine yeast Zyma ore ST was used, which is susceptible to cold shock, meaning it is easy to stop the ferment. It’s an aromatic medium sweet wine, balanced with aromas of peach, gooseberry and elder ower, according to the tasting notes. The Ortega label was created by an artist from a series of drawings by students and contributers had their names printed on the bottles.

Meanwhile, the sparkling Pinot Noir is a traditional method sparkling wine, pressed lightly to extract the avour and complexity, before the base wine is fermented to 9%. After a primary stabilisation, the liqueur de tirage is added to the wine before bottling. The wine is then aged for two years, riddled, disgorged and labelled. It was made from a hybrid variety with red esh on the inside of the grape which gives it more colour than is usual for an English red. Raspberry and cherry avours take centre stage with this wine.

Core courses available at Plumpton are the Viticulture & Oenology BSc (Hons), International Wine Business BA (Hons) and MSc in Viticulture & Oenology – and there is a clear focus on combining practical experience and theory. During the visit, press were invited to look in on two seminars to highlight the range of learning taking place at

Plumpton – from an in-depth scienti c viticulture and oenology class led by Dr Akshay S Baboo, programme manager for BSc Wine Production; and a seminar on English Wine & Tourism by business programme manager Paul Harley.

During lunch, Fruit & Vine spoke to Harry Gilbert, a sommelier for the Holland Group and second-year student on the International Wine Business course. For Harry, who has ambitions to work in import and distribution, supplying the on-trade, the work placement and networking opportunities are key parts of the course. “[Working as a sommelier] as part of the course is fantastic because it gives me an opportunity to talk to the public about wine and learn about wine in practice.”

The three-year course involves two full contact days per week plus 100 hours of relevant work placement. Most students start on the two-year foundation degree – from there it’s possible to either go straight into the wine industry, or complete the third year for the full degree. Topics covered on the course include marketing, tourism, wine sales and social responsibility, product innovation including low and no alcohol content, and managing operations and people. Some of the most bene cial modules, in Harry’s opinion, are Study and Research Skills – covering focus groups, surveys and qualitative research methods – and Wines Of The World. The latter o ers an “amazing opportunity” to try alternative wine styles, he added.

In addition to the theoretical aspects of the course, it also facilitates networking and opportunities to work overseas. In his downtime, as well as working in UK vineyards, Harry has travelled to locations including Champagne, Alsace, Borello, Catania and Etna.

Whilst the changing climate is providing new opportunities for English wine, this is also true for other countries which could be a threat to our industry – which is why maintaining the USPs of English wine, including sustainability, will be increasingly important, Harry said.

It was noted on the day that it’s di cult to nd anyone in the English wine industry who has not studied at Plumpton – but Greg Dunn, head of Plumpton’s Wine Division, said the college is not content to rest there. Next on the agenda is to become an internationally recognised provider of education in viticulture and oenology – not only supplying the UK with fresh talent, but the rest of the world too.

The presence of an on-site commercial winery and laboratories is a USP for the college, but there is much more in the pipeline, including plans to invest in a state-of-the-art under vine cultivator, and rebuild the winery. Research is also important, with areas of particular interest including stabilising yield and composition, oenology, sustainability and protecting soils amid climate change. Other new developments include a National Skills Development Programme to be led by Greg and viticulture apprenticeship programme leader, Dona Frost, and delivered in speci c regions, covering areas such as spray application, setting up spray programmes, alternative chemicals, and nozzle and equipment calibration.

There are currently around 130 higher education students on Plumpton’s three courses –but with WineGB estimating that the current 2,000 people employed in the wine industry will soar to 24,000 by 2040, there are numerous opportunities for new entrants to this growing sector.