When it came to finding a source to represent the future of English wine for the fourth release in our Generation Series, Simpsons’ were an obvious choice. The final release of wines in our Generation Series points to the future, embodying some of our predictions for what we believe the next 50 years will look like for wine. One of the big stories will be the development of English wine. English sparkling wine has been world class for a number of years, but it’s the still wines and our home-produced chardonnay in particular which our buyer Matthew Horsley is excited to see develop.
>> Explore our Generation Series English Chardonnay
Simpsons’ Estate, based in the North Downs just outside Canterbury are already trailblazers in this respect, as they are one of the few English wine producers to focus on both still and sparkling wines. But as owners Ruth and Charles Simpson admit, this wasn’t their original idea.
‘We planted our first vineyard in 2014, the intention was to be entirely focused on sparkling wine. We believed that would be the only option. We didn’t think we’d be able to get grapes consistently ripe enough to make still wine. Today, as a business, we’re nearly 60% still and 40% sparkling – it was a complete shock for us!’
When planting up their vineyards (they now have 38 hectares over three sites), with the classic Champenois trio of chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier, they also chose to plant Burgundian still-wine clones with the aim of getting extra complexity into their base wines. Crucially, these clones tend to be lower yielding and more concentrated and while no two vintages are alike in the UK with our variable climate, they discovered that they could achieve decent ripeness none-the-less.
Ruth explained that they had done their homework before buying the land, ‘just like buying a house, it’s all about location, location, location’, we have very warm sites on the same lime-rich chalk soils as you’ll find stretching from southern England to Champagne and Burgundy.’ The estate is situated in the Elham Valley, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), with ancient woodlands protecting the south-facing slopes in what is one of the warmest and driest parts of the UK.
Kent chalk soils – the holy grail for grapes
Charles was keen to point out that Kent has the highest percentage of land under vine in the UK – 1,293 hectares of the UK total of 4,250 – 30% all the vineyards in the UK are in Kent and 77% of these are on the North Downs, on the chalk, ‘the holy grail’ for vines, Charles says. And the total is going up all the time as more and more people see the potential here. Ruth is a Scot and Charles is originally from Ireland (though has lived all over the world), so they have no ties to Kent, choosing it purely as the best place to grow grapes in the UK.
The week we visited, the team at Simpsons’ (an international mix with equal numbers of women and men – from the top down) had tasted the first ever chardonnay they produced from the 2016 vintage. ‘It was still tasting incredible… so while we thought initially that we’d only be able to make pretty, fruity chardonnay and patio-style pinot noir, we are actually making some really serious wines. The sites show enormous potential… what we’ve got is long sunshine hours, we can leave the fruit hanging that little bit longer so that we’re getting all the natural sugars we can and acidity levels will just be dropping that bit to achieve a really nice balance. When people taste our chardonnays, they’re often reminded of Chablis,’ Ruth explained.
Experience breeds confidence
Of course, another huge advantage Ruth and Charles have is this isn’t their first foray into making wine. In 2002, three weeks before becoming parents for the first time, they bought Domaine de Sainte Rose in the Languedoc – the property needed a lot of work, but the couple managed to make a huge success of their new venture. Charles says that back then they wanted to be involved in an up-and-coming region… ‘We wanted to help establish a reputation… it’s that same spirit that led us here… we want to help change the reputation of England.’
Ironically, one of the aspects that attracted them originally to the south of France was the freedom from appellation regulations, allowing them to make the kinds of wines they wanted to. Now, they say, they have come full circle and think that if anything England could do with a bit more structure and protection. ‘We were quite rebellious back then…quite anti-establishment!’ Charles jokes.
Both Ruth and Charles say that the biggest thing they brought to their new project second time around was confidence. ‘We’ve seen others attempting a sort of cookie-cutter approach to setting up a winery here,’ Charles says, ‘they go and visit some of the key players and think that they need to buy exactly the same kit from the same limited list of suppliers.’
The Simpsons have their French contacts and suppliers and have done things a little differently – in this sense they’ve been trailblazers in the UK industry too. They found it cheaper to use their French nursery for plants who even sent their team over to plant out the vineyards. Historic ties in the UK have traditionally led to Germanic clones of grapes being planted sourced from German nurseries and using their planting crews. The Simpsons have been able to help out fellow growers by putting them in touch with their contacts in France. They even found it made economic sense to bring over their Languedoc bottler each year for their still wines, though this is now fraught with red tape and extra expenses.
An unconventional route into the wine business
I wondered how two late 20, early 30-something year-olds had had the nerve to embark on buying a vineyard in the first place. Both had high-flying international careers, Ruth in International Relations and the humanitarian sector, travelling all over the world before returning to the UK where she assessed business plans for organisations seeking charitable funding. Ruth is also a fifth-generation member of the William Grants & Sons whisky production family and although they have no direct involvement in the business, Ruth explained how this legacy and experiencing her own father setting up a hill-sheep farm and forestry business gave insights into family businesses with long term investments. Charles left the British Isles aged 10, lived in New Zealand until 14 and then went to school and higher education in the United States. He worked for large pharmaceutical companies, eventually taking a job in Azerbaijan when he and Ruth were newlyweds and up for adventure. Ruth ended up doing consultancy work for Save the Children and other charities. In the evenings they dreamt about what they wanted to do with their lives, often over a glass of wine. Ruth took a distance learning course in Wine Marketing with the University of South Australia with her study books coming via Moscow to Baku.
Eventually they were both keen to leave the region and Charles was offered a big board job looking after 110 countries in 23 different time zones at just 30. No wonder they had their mid-life crisis early – deciding to give the job six months and round off the corporate career, then start afresh working together with a life in wine. They originally looked to Australia and New Zealand, but already prices were getting high in these regions. They felt the Languedoc offered the same pioneering opportunities with its more relaxed rules, was closer to the UK, which they thought would be their principal market and would have fewer set-up costs.
The Sainte Rose property hadn’t produced wine for over 15 years, so everything needed replacing and they pulled up 20 hectares of vines in order to plant the varieties they wanted to grow. As with all success stories, there was an element of good fortune too. For Ruth and Charles, this came in the form of free consultancy from Englishman James Herrick, one of the first to make the most of commercialising varietal Languedoc wines to the UK. He had recently sold his business to huge Australian wine producers Southcorp and was expanding his consultancy business.
He agreed to meet Ruth and Charles but after hearing their plans he told them to lie down in a dark room until the feeling went away! The meeting extended into a long lunch and eventually he said he liked them and wanted to help. He offered to do so for no fee. Charles says that they wouldn’t be sitting here today if it hadn’t been for James, he helped them navigate huge pitfalls early on and instilled essential discipline into the project. 22 years on, he remains a close friend of the couple.
The future of still wines
While it’s the chardonnay we have bottled for our Generation Series as the flag-carrier for the future of English wine, Ruth and Charles are equally excited about the potential for reds. Originally, they didn’t think they’d get sufficient maturity in the grapes for decent-quality reds but the warm 2018 vintage changed everything for them. Charles says that warming summers can only be a positive for their reds but points out that not many properties are geared up to take advantage, ‘you need to have the appropriate presses for making these wines and you also need the right de-stemmer and crusher.
They couldn’t believe the reception that their Rabbit Hole Pinot Noir got from the market – and it doesn’t just sell in the UK appealing to the patriotic wine lovers – it, along with their other wines is lapped up by Scandinavian markets. In fact, in Norway, Simpsons’ is the number one English wine brand.
In this sense too, the estate is blazing a trail. Most other UK wineries rely heavily on the domestic market with an average of 7% going to export across all English wine. Simpsons’ currently export 45% of their output with Norway and Sweden accounting for 35% of their turnover.
Sustainability initiatives
I wasn’t surprised to learn that Ruth and Charles feel this topic is incredibly important. They’ve taken a steady and gradual approach with their vineyards, achieving full accreditation with Sustainable Wines of Great Britain in 2022. They are heavily involved with Wine GB’s working groups on viticulture and winemaking and a new group focused on People and the social and community side of things. They believe it is important to engage their whole team on sustainability, taking a holistic approach across all that they do.
They were keen to talk about some of the fun projects that they’re currently working on, like what do you do with grape marc, all the grape skins, pips and stems at the end of harvest? In France it would be collected by the local distiller and made into industrial alcohol for kitchen cleaners, but we don’t have that set up in the UK, yet.
Simpsons’ have teamed up with the local zoo, Howletts, who provide dung from the elephant enclosure to combine with the marc to help in breaking it down for eventual use as a spray in the vineyards. They also partner with a local aromatherapist who takes some of the lees (the residue left after fermentation) to create bespoke hand soap. A local Michelin-starred restaurant also uses chardonnay lees for a sauce with Dover Sole and each year they give a kilo of grapes to Charles’ sister who makes bath and body lotions.
Charles is excited by the worm farm their vineyard manager has started, ‘the worms break down cardboard into a liquid that’s really high in nutritional value which you can mix with water and use as a spray in the vines. We just have one farm unit at the moment, but we’re looking to have four or five out in the vineyards… the potential is huge!’
Wine should be fun!
Finally, we need to finish chatting and make our way out into the vineyards for the photoshoot for the cover of our 1874 magazine. The heavens have opened and rather than looking like the driest part of the UK, Kent is drowning under rain of biblical proportions. But Ruth and Charles aren’t just successful entrepreneurs and trailblazers of English wine, they also have a great sense of fun. Together with their winemakers Den’e van Wyk and Adrian Mohor, they are more than game for getting absolutely soaking wet for us.
In the end, for the cover, we opt for one of the photos taken inside the winery, which is one of the only ones I’ve encountered with disco lights and a slide. Why? Because Ruth and Charles want to remind people that wine, after all, should be fun.
>> Explore Simpsons’ Estate wines
>> Explore our Generation Series wines
>> Read more on the future of wine
