1 week Ago By [email protected] (Jonathon Hill)
It’s a chilly morning and Richard Morris is inspecting the vines in his vast crop of chardonnay. “The starlings have been at them,” the 72-year-old explains, peering at the empty vines. He says he could have lost up to £8,000 in yield over night because of the little blighters.
But he doesn’t seem too fussed. We’re standing in his Ancre Hill estate in Monmouth which comprises three vineyards totalling 22 acres, the winery which turns over an average of 30,000 bottles a year, and a huge refurbished farmhouse at the family’s neighbouring Newton Court Farm. The estate is on the market for £3.
4 million. A range of farm buildings including the old cider mill and barn are also for sale. Richard says he can’t quite believe what they’ve done with the place.
When he sold his Monmouthshire-based transport and logistics company in his 40s he planned to retire early and travel the world with his wife Joy, visiting as many vineyards as they could to spend their lives indulging in one bottle of fine wine to the next. “I soon got bored,” he laughs. “I felt it was too early to call it a day.
We bought the main house up here (a neighbouring seven-bedroom home) and I had these huge empty fields looking at me. I went back to school at Plumpton College in Brighton where I did a diploma in viticulture, learning about the perfect climates and growing scenarios for various wines. Basically I bought the fields and started planting.
" He still works three days a week and loves every minute. "It's been fantastic," he says. "Instead of being stuck behind a desk all day or sitting in a car all day, I'm out in the fresh air in the vineyard or I'm in the winery.
But I can't go on forever." The winery, which is made from straw bales and rendered lime mortar, is one of the most sustainable in the world. It has an insulated sedum grass roof and a reed-bed system for disposing of effluent naturally.
Since the first vines were in the ground in 2006 Richard has built the business one piece of land at a time. “When we bought Newton Court Farm the farmhouse was basically falling down. We’ve spent a lot of money renovating it.
“When we started buying up the land for vineyards the first thing we did was deer-proof the whole thing. You get a lot of deer around here. The other day I spotted a lovely looking muntjac.
You get wild boar here too. You’ll often see one or two roaming about the place.” Their wine is sold in Michelin star restaurants including Le Manoir, various other restaurants across Britain, Canada and Asia, and in British independent stores.
A few years ago Richard headhunted South African winemaker Jean Du Plessis to oversee things at Ancre Hill. A former marine biology student, Jean fell out of love with science and was gripped by wine as a teen. He’s now in the midst of his 24th harvest.
By the end of December the estate will have produced just over 20,000 bottles in 2024 - down by around 15,000 on the previous year. “It’s been tough this year because it’s been cold,” Jean says. “It’s the complete opposite to the Cape.
But it doesn’t matter where you are, there will always be many challenges in winemaking. I do it because I love it.” “I think in the last 12 or 18 months the market has been difficult because the country has been virtually in recession and what you’re finding is people are tending to go for cheaper wines,” Richard adds.
“For us the cheaper end is pét-nat. We can’t make enough of the stuff. What you are finding though is because so many restaurants are struggling they’re trying to compensate for lost margins by upping the price of the wine.
For wines like your higher end sparkling wines, sales have been much slower in the last 18 months.” But he says the biggest challenge facing winemakers now is excise duty on bottles at 11% or above in the UK. According to the TaxPayers’ Alliance in the UK excise duty on a bottle of still wine at 11% is £2.
35 - third-highest in Europe. Wine in the UK is also subject to VAT which is levied at 20% adding a further £1.31 to an average bottle.
A new regime, which comes into effect on February 1, increases the number of tax bands for wine from one to 30. Under the plan, drinks will be taxed on alcohol by volume (ABV) rather than type. The amount of duty paid rises by 2p for every 0.
1% increase in strength. The tax on a bottle of wine with an ABV of 14.5% will increase by 42p to £3.
09. Red wines will be most affected with prices on 75% expected to go up. “Excise duty and the cost of administering it is going to go ridiculous,” Richard explains.
“Majestic and the supermarkets are up in arms about it because the cost of administering it is going to go through the roof. “But I don’t want people to think this life is all doom and gloom. It hasn’t been that way at all.
I’ve been all over the world with Joy representing Ancre Hill. I was captain of the English and Welsh sparkling wine team which took on South Africa in Cape Town a few years ago. This year we’re in Vienna in November for an orange wine fair, in April we’re in Tokyo for another fair.
We've had a week in Shanghai too. So it’s been fantastic. I wish I could go on forever doing it.
” Across the vineyards the pair plant pinot noir, chardonnay, albarino and other hybrid varieties. Ancre Hill is now famed for its orange wine, made by extending contact with grape skins to give a citric taste. “It’s extremely popular with young people,” Richard says.
“We’re exporting to Canada, Singapore, Hong Kong, and now we’re looking at Scandinavia. “We were the first to begin making orange wine in the UK when we started in 2014. It was something Joy and I noticed on our travels.
They make it in various parts of the world but it’s particularly good in Canada at Niagara-on-the-Lake.” The couple started scaling back when they stopped inviting visitors to try their wines in their Cellar Door Bar before they sold the main Ancre Hill house and moved to an old granary in the village of Skenfrith up the road. But Richard says he'd like to see a bar area reopen at Ancre Hill.
It's essential, he says, that the next owner of the estate respects the ecosystem - including the starlings. "We’ve put 20 years of our life into making these top wines which are totally clean, and we're making them in an environment where bees, insects and birdlife can flourish. I don’t want someone who will come in and change all that.
That’s the legacy of the place really I suppose. I’d love to walk into a top restaurant in London and see our name on the latest vegan-friendly bottle of wine.".
