Bolney Wine Estate merges with Pookchurch

Bolney Wine Estate has announced a merger with neighbouring vineyard Pookchurch to form a 104 acre estate dedicated to increasing the production of premium still English wines.

Now part of Bolney Wine Estate, Pookchurch Vineyard is expected to produce an additional 200 tonnes of grapes for the Bolney Wine Estate, including Pinot Noir, Bacchus and the Pinot Gris.

The absorption of the Cuckfield-based vineyard adds another 67 acres to Bolney’s estate, which is currently approaching the completion of a new winery this February, which will increase production capacity to more than 300,000 bottles by 2022. Throughout 2019, the vineyard will additionally focus on developing the estate to welcome a greater number of guests to the vineyard.

Sam Linter, managing director and lead winemaker at Bolney Wine Estate said: “Merging with Pookchurch’s vineyard has strengthened our business for the future. Both Bolney Wine Estate and Pookchurch vineyard share the same outstanding sandstone soils and aspect so there is a lot of potential for new single vineyard wines.

"It’s also an opportunity to increase research, development and benefit from greater economies of scale across the larger vineyard. We are now a significant rural business and employer in the local community”.