Behind the vine

Beth Derbyshire - Furnace Projects - Herefordshire, U.K.

When do you think you fell in love with wine, enough to make a career of it?

I came into this industry when my father and I planted one of our vineyards 12 years ago. The truth behind it is that my father planted it and then told me about it and asked me to get involved. At that stage, it was more his project. He took that project on, and not much happened during the first few years when the vines were maturing. There were a few early crops, and around 5 years ago my dad passed away, and I decided to take it on.

I've been running the vineyard myself for the last 6 years and we have 6 varieties on our southern-facing slope: Bacchus, Pinot Noir, Phoenix, Regent, Rondo, and Seyval Blanc. That site is more of a commercial site and those vines are in their 11th or 12th year and are pumping out more developed wines. That is one project. Then, 3 years ago, my partner and I moved to a derelict 350 year barn, and we bought this property and planted a vineyard of Bacchus and Pinot Noir.

When we decided to take on the wine, we wanted to wrap a culture around it with artist residences, a hospitality side, and really make the wine a part of a broader world, rather than only having wine as the world. We discovered three issues in the wine world that we were encountering: we saw some aspects of elitism, we felt it was quite male-oriented industry, and parts of it can be conservative and traditional. We wanted to create a brand that was very fresh and would appeal to a broad range of people. That’s why it’s Furnace Project Presents - the idea was that Furnace Projects could present a wine, a book, or artists.

What story does your wine tell?

In some ways it's about the good people of Herefordshire. It is the part of the country that has roots back to Anglo-Saxon England and Germany, so our vines are German grown and nurtured there. We originally came up with a wine brand that was all about Saxon England - very jolly and English, but we decided it wasn't right. We wanted to make our wines all about English gardens and took it a step further by focusing our illustrations and branding around the birds of the English gardens.

We work with Three Choirs winery to perfect our blends, and our wines evoke the feeling of having a glass of wine in the English countryside - thinking about the nature around you. For each wine, each one's taste and characteristics are evoked by the bird song. That's the narrative we weave with our wines. The Sparrow has a bit of raspberry and peaches and cream, so it will remind you of the English climate in the way that it tastes, but if you were drinking our Chiffchaff Regent Red, that's got soft tannins, really dark fruit with a hint of spice, and that's equally one you can enjoy cold.

What misconceptions about wine do you think people should forget?

It's my belief that people think it's the blend and bottling that makes the difference, but growing the grape cleanly and well is a huge part of what makes a wine good. You have to know what you're doing to grow the grape properly. That's what we really focus on. People think a vineyard is incredibly grand, but it's a lot of hard work. Our wine is picked by hand, we prune by hand, and where possible we add nutrients by hand.

Another point is that people can think it's a male, elitist industry. I think it was, but it's increasingly changing as much smaller producers are emerging and doing interesting thing. There are lots of excellent female winemakers out there and that's beginning to be recognised. And they're doing it in brave ways. It's not a business to get into on a wing and a prayer, you have to have resources, but then again, you don't have to have as much as you once did.

People don’t understand why English wine is so expensive, but it comes down to costs and duties. Costs can be minimal for large-scale producers, but for every charge of duty or tax, it’s cutting our margins and pushing up our prices. The margins are very small for small producers - for small runs of wine you're paying £5-6 per bottle.

What great things about wine do you think people should remember?

I mean who doesn’t like a glass of wine?! It's a great leveller and I love the fact that wine is naturally something to be shared with people.

In winemaking, there is something to be said about that moment when you know you've made a good product and you've waited a long time for it. It’s important to remember that most people who make wines are doing it with love and people do take care of and care about the product, and they all mostly drink it and enjoy it as well. There's something unbelievably satisfying about you producing wine from grape to bottle to glass - nothing can beat that. What's much more exciting is when other people drink it and say ‘this is great’. It’s a fantastic compliment to get. Even though it's difficult and time consuming, and disappointing when it's not so great, it’s very rewarding.

What is a piece of advice you would give to a woman interested in breaking into the wine world?

Make sure you've got enough investment to experiment a bit. The way I set up my business is with a holiday business attached, so you have something to support it. I think you can never put all your eggs in one basket with a wine business. Ultimately it's a farming business, and farms can lose their crops. We've lost harvests, and you want back-up so you don't need to throw the towel in just as you really start going. So, if you can, make sure to begin with you have something else that's supporting you - or your partner's in a job.

Another piece of advice is to try to do it yourself. We were lucky that we could do it, and not everyone is that fortunate, but I wanted to own my own business because I wanted to do it my way.

Who is a woman in wine you think everyone should know about?

Where possible in wine, you want to collaborate rather than compete and be friends with local producers, growers, etc. So my choice is Sam Lintner at Bolney Wine Estate. When I took the business on, it was unclear what the running costs were. I rang Sam up my first year when I had a good harvest, but there was a bad frost in other areas of the UK and said I'm really new to this business and want to make friends. She bought our entire crop and it meant that we could make it through that year and a bit. So she is a personal connection, and she's won a lot of awards, and done really well running a big wine business.

Where can women find your wine?

You can buy directly on our site, or through Wanderlust wine.