Report on our ambitious summer of UK events
We have really gone for it this summer in the UK.
We have Justin to thank (or possibly to blame?)
At the beginning of the year he said
“There is so much excellent regen practice going on in the UK… I really want to show the world what Elvis & Kresse are doing… and wouldn’t it be great to take people to Windsor Great Park Vineyard so that Matt can show us what he’s doing differently to Harrow & Hope, and why… plus Ian Beecher-Jones is doing amazing stuff at JoJo’s with lots of high tech innovation… and why don’t we get Marc-Andre Selosse over for Groundswell… oh, and we should do a full day workshop at the Grange – maybe we could launch the UK One Block Challenge there.”
Slightly exhaustingly we decided to do all of the above (JoJo’s is still to come on 23rd October, plus we’re going to sneak in something in November when Kelly Mulville is over from California, but let’s be realistic, summer will be well and truly over by then). We’ve been so busy we’ve only just got round to writing them up, except for Groundswell which we have already managed to write about here.
Kate Lofthouse has written an article about the RV Workshop here and has had an article about the launch of the One Block Challenge in the UK published in Drink Business here.
We have no photos of the July Windsor trip as it is veiled in secrecy, being on Crown Estate Land. It was an excellent day, where we learnt from Matt how he has been rejuvenating the previously compacted, anaerobic soils. Bringing in tons of organic matter and cover cropping seem to be doing the trick. Rex the dog happily helped Matt out showing us a hole he’d dug earlier.
We do, however, have some fantastic photos from the June trip to Elvis & Kresse, an inspiring fashion brand that makes ‘sustainable luxury’ bags out of recycled firehose, and donates 50% of their profits to The Firefighter’s Charity. We went along to find out what happens when two people obsessed by sustainability move their business to a farm in Kent, England, and plant a regenerative vineyard? The answer turned out not just to be about vines, but also:
♻️water cycling with a really cool system of swales and 9 ponds
♻️using any available waste streams from their business and local community in their compost (leftovers from a cafe that already uses waste food from supermarkets, separating paper from foil from tea sacks from tea importers, kombucha that’s ‘gone over’)
♻️ sustainable building design insulated by standard sizes straw bales reducing their electricity bill by 94.7%
But we know you’re interested in how the vines are farmed too…
🍇All PIWI varieties hand planted
🍇Never been sprayed with a synthetic chemical
🍇3m wide rows that are only mowed in the at the edges
🍇High trellis wire that will allow year round sheep grazing
🍇Compost teas applied with diaphragm pumps that ‘don’t chop up the biology’
🍇Diatomaceous earth to strengthen cell walls
🍇Homemade fish hydrolysate (not as smelly as you’d think apparently)
🍇Trees and shrubs throughout the vines
🍇Straw bales spread under vine as a mulch
🍇Subsoiling with Yeomans plough on keyline
A pure and brave version of regenerative viticulture that we are all following carefully!
The One Block Challenge events in Paso Robles (California), South Africa and New Zealand (and more to come!) mean we are set to have events like this around the world. If you want to help us, please get in touch info@regenerativeviticulture.org
