WINEMAKERS

Mark & Laura Smith

AGRICULTURE

Organic certified

VINEYARD SIZE

3.0 hectares

LOCATION

UK, West Midlands, Herefordshire

Nestled down a Herefordshire country lane, in the shadow of the Brecon Beacons, Black Mountain Vineyard is an unexpected find. But this three-hectare labour of love - planted by Mark & Laura Smith in 2009- has been an evolution.

There’s no rulebook for planting vines here, and Mark soon realised classic English sparkling varieties were not best suited to the area, and began re-planting with better matched hybrids.

Whilst agriculture was initially conventional (though no spraying of herbicides and insecticides) a road trip through France visiting organic & biodynamic vineyards was the push Mark required to begin organic conversion in early 2018. Conversion was certified through the soil association and Mark ceased any additions in the winery.

In recent years, Mark has adopted his own spin on Korean Natural Farming, and we have been blown away to see his progress, adapting the system to work with ingredients available locally.

Fermenting potatoes and soil from the woods rather than rice and sugar for the core microbial compound for treatments, swapping rice wine vinegar for local cider vinegar to make eggshell fermentations for water soluble calcium, his work prioritising soil and plant health is paying off. Further experiments in cover cropping, chaos gardens and vine restoration are proving fruitful.

Work in the shed is among the most lo-fi and careful an operation as any we've witnessed. Working with no electricity, with every task undertaken by hand, macerations are gentle, fruit is basket-pressed slowly over a number of hours. Raised in a small handful of old barrels and stainless steel tanks the resulting wines have an assertive purity, layered and alive.

For tech information on the wines, please visit our tech archive

For any UK wholesale and stock enquiries, please contact: hello@winesutb.com