17 January 2006

Rt Hon Margaret Beckett officially opens new state-of-the-art winery at Bookers Vineyard in Sussex

The Secretary of State for DEFRA, the Rt Hon Margaret Beckett M.P. today officially opened the country’s latest new winery, at Bookers Vineyard, near Bolney, West Sussex (Tuesday January 17th 2006).

Bookers Vineyard, at Bolney Wine Estate, was established in 1973 and in recent years has expanded from 6 to 22 acres of vines.  This increase will give rise to an annual 80,000 bottles within the next five years, from the current production of 16,000 bottles.

Last year a new winery was also built on site at the estate, with the help of a Processing and Marketing Grant from DEFRA.  £62,000 was awarded to Bookers under the England Rural Development Scheme (ERDP), jointly funded by DEFRA and the EU. This contributes to the delivery of the Government's Strategy for Sustainable Farming and Food.  

The winery has been built to specific standards and equipped with the latest state-of-the-art winemaking equipment available.  Commenting on her visit to the new Bookers winery, Mrs Beckett said: “The faith and optimism shown here by Bookers Vineyard with this investment, highlights an underlying and very real confidence shown by many within the industry that English wines have a solid economic future.

“It is a testament to the winemaking skills of those here at Bookers, and elsewhere in the industry, that the quality of English wines is now so well known and much talked about.  Bookers themselves have supplied wine to official DEFRA functions and I must say that I was very impressed with the range and quality of the wines we were able to offer and the compliments that I received about them.

“This is by no means surprising - English wines are now taking more accolades at international competitions then ever before, and this is against competition from some of the best producers in the world.”

Bookers will be increasing their production of red wines to half of their total output – probably the first in the country to do so – as well as raise their current production of sparkling wines, a proven successful sector in the English wine industry and one that is developing significantly.  When in full production, the vineyard aims to produce 50% red wine, 35-40% sparkling and 15% still white wine.  Current production comprises 40% red, 30% sparkling and 30% still white wine.

Mrs. Samantha Linter, Managing Director and Winemaker at the Bolney Wine Estate says: “The completion of our new winery means we will be able to produce even better quality wines. We have particularly invested in the latest red-wine making equipment, to ensure future vintages of our light and fruity Dark Harvest blend are even better than our previous award winners.”

Producing a range of award winning red, white and sparkling wines, the Bolney Wine Estate is open to the public Mon-Fri, 10:00 to 5:00, and can be found just off the A272, west of the A23, on the outskirts of the historic village of Bolney, or on the web at www.bookersvineyard.co.uk

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Note to Editors:

For more information, please contact Samantha Linter on:

Bookers Vineyard Ltd., Foxhole Lane, Bolney, RH17 5NB.

Tel: 01444 881575, Fax: 01444 881399

info@bookersvineyard.co.uk.

Photographs of the event are available by contacting Samantha Linter at Bookers Vineyard.