Meet the vineyard owners making sparkling wine in Poole

“Oh, we’re obsessed by it,” said Sarah, peering out to check whether any rain clouds were threatening to bruise the glorious autumnal sky.

And with good reason. As owners of English Oak Vineyard in Lytchett Matravers, the couple have already experienced the wettest summer for more than 100 years – weather which saw other English vineyards having to abandon their whole crop this year.

Still, the gutsy pair remain chipper.

Bacchus, or some other god has been smiling down on them. Their fruits, so far, are looking OK, which means another sparkling year is ahead.

When the Pharoahs planted their first vines here in 2007 they sowed the beginnings of a whole new lifestyle.

Their new workmates would be 23,000 vines, their office 23 bucolic acres of rolling farmland.

Andrew was in IT, sales and marketing and Sarah in horticulture when a chance meeting with an enthusiastic Cypriot vineyard owner made them want to imbibe a bit of the good life.

Andrew explained: “We were in Cyprus enjoying an unusually good bottle of red which we learned was only available from his vineyard.

“So we found it and got chatting to the owner. His passion for wine was infectious and it really made us want to be in his shoes.

“Surely it couldn’t be done in England, we thought. But then the 400 or so other vineyards in the UK couldn’t be wrong.”

With encouragement from other British owners and discovering that the soil around Poole was a perfect bedfellow for noble grapes, they were flying.

Andrew, Sarah and their two daughters moved on to the land which originally grazed cattle.

Sarah describes the purchase as a ‘huge brave leap’.

“From that 2007 planting, we picked in 2009 and are only now enjoying the first vintage.

“We had to take into consideration from the start that we couldn’t put anything in front of the customer for at least five years. It was scary stuff,” she said.

They had to go to college to learn about the nitty-gritty of the whole winemaking process.

“And to be honest, we just didn’t know how well the grapes were going to grow.

“Luckily we have a lovely microclimate around the Poole area, and at the farm we are situated in a bowl, with a south-facing slope and medium loam soil.”

Indeed, it’s a package which mirrors the very best winemaking regions in France.

Fizz-producing areas of England are remarkably similar in climate and conditions to Champagne, which means Brits are producing seriously high-quality sparkling. Even the experts can struggle to differentiate between it and Champagne when they taste it blind.

For that reason, the decision was made to solely produce the bubbly stuff.

“Sparkling is doing very well in the UK. And what we make really is near as damn it Champagne,” Andrew whispered proudly.

Following the method traditionelle of Champagne making, they planted three grape varieties: Chardonnay with a citrusy zing, Pinot Meunier offering a deep richness, and Pinot Noir with peppery and spicy notes.

Blended to different proportions, these three kings produce very different results and the Pharoahs are now proud to have three splendid varieties of sparkling in the English Oak cellar which have been extremely well received by public and restaurants alike.

There’s a light and zingy Engelmann Cuvee, a delicate Chinkapin Rose and a San Gabriel Blancs De Blanc (described as being crafted exclusively from Chardonnay grapes grown in the vineyard’s premier aspect).

Now experts in the craft, and brandishing terms such as ‘bud burst’, ‘riddling’ and ‘disgorging’, they describe how the process of sparkling wine making is a gentle one.

All the grapes (much smaller than the eating variety) are hand-picked and the yield is less than that of a nonsparkling wine.

The fruits are turned into wine off-site, “but a certain amount of fermentation takes place within the bottle.

“What’s in the bottle is alive,” said Sarah.

“Its character changes depending on the blend, temperature, what you ate before and what mood you’re in.

“Just the right chemistry makes these lovely light, small, non-aggressive...twinkling... bubbles,” she added, tipping a glass up to the light.

All over the area, customers are doing exactly the same. English Oak is a name creeping onto many prestigious wine lists in the area.

“People are very receptive to local produce. It’s very en vogue,” said Andrew.

“We are now noticing a surge in the pre-Christmas market. We sell from here to the public and the wine makes an unusual gift.”

Such a product deserved appropriate livery, and the Pharoahs mused long and hard about how best to brand their wine.

“One of the first things we noticed when we arrived at the farm was the 300-year-old oak tree,” said Andrew.

“It spoke to us. It owns the place. We are just passing through.”

After deciding on English Oak as a name, they called their varieties after different oaks and stamped their bottles with spreading trees. The design won an award for Best Dressed British Wine.

Business has blossomed to accommodate a full-time apprentice and a couple of students, but even so, their commitment to the cause means, as they put it, they ‘can’t just shut the store and go on holiday’.

Sarah said: “The lifestyle is lovely, but it’s hard work so not quite so much fun on a freezing winter’s day. I have to wear an all-in one ski-suit to do the pruning!

“Also, it’s hard to be upbeat all the time when you’ve had a rainy day and another rainy day and then another rainy day, but I do love being outdoors. I get up every day and I look forward to work. I find a certain magic in the changing of the seasons and the winemaking year.

“The business is a real privilege to be in,” added Andrew, who is now taking their first bookings for weddings and private functions.

“We love it – although the vines are very much the boss. They tell you what to do.”