A HEREFORDSHIRE vineyard is celebrating winning a top award... so when they invited us along to see what they are all about, we jumped at the chance!
Two Beacons Vineyard in Herefordshire was delighted to receive the Best Newcomer award at the WineGB Awards 2024 for their Pinot Noir Precoce 2021 at the WineGB Awards 2024, having been up against a record number of entries from the English and Welsh wine industry.
Two Beacons' Pinot Noir Precoce 2021 came out on top with a gold medal, their Bacchus 2022 and sparkling Pinot Noir 2021 rose won silver and their Pinot Noir Precoce 2022 won bronze.
This record-breaking year also saw the most gold medals awarded since the award’s inception. Every wine was carefully judged by an esteemed panel of wine connoisseurs.
The Two Beacons’ vineyard sits in the parish of Colwall, Herefordshire on the western flanks of the Malvern Hills and within its area of outstanding natural beauty.
A gently south-facing slope was identified as being the most suitable of the Two Beacons' fields for a vineyard. In the spring of 2018, approximately 4,000 vines of three varieties were planted in a mere day and a half: Bacchus for a still white wine, early ripening Pinot Noir Precoce for a still red wine and standard Pinot Noir for a sparkling wine.
Two Beacons' first crop would have been harvested in 2020 had it not been rendered unusable by a severe frost. Nevertheless, the vineyard bounced back in 2021 with a harvest that went on to create their gold medal-winning wine, made at local winemakers the Three Choirs and Haygrove Evolution.
Two Beacons’ head of operations Pedro Stepien invited me and, as I'm not a wine drinker, my mum, to a tour of the vineyard on July 31, kicking off from the stunning Mathon Court. After meeting our hosts, founder Ceri Phipps, consultant Tim Dutton and Mr Stepien, and fellow tourers, we hopped on a minibus for a two-mile drive to the vineyard.
Waiting for us at the spectacular site was vineyard manager Tim Willder who told us all about the hard work that goes into a successful harvest. The heavily manual nature of nurturing a healthy crop in relentless, blazing summer sunshine requires hard graft and patience.
As much as “23 tonnes of crop” have come from just one of the vineyard’s previous harvests and is all picked and put into crates by friends and family... by hand.
Speaking of their WineGB awards, Mr Willder thought they were “brilliant and very pleasing for all involved”, all achieved through diligence and taking advice from their ergonomist’s fortnightly visits.
Mr Willder also gave us a glimpse into the vineyard’s future, showing us their new plantation of 11,600 young vines and how they will be taking part in a soil science PhD study into the effect of wildflowers in the vineyard. The young vineyard’s first harvest could be in 2026, if the weather permits.
The minibus returned us to Mathon Court where wine tasting and delicious light bites awaited us.
My mum and the other guests had the pleasure of trying all four of the Two Beacons award-winning wines. She said, “both the rose and white wines were beautifully light, fruity and very refreshing – perfect for a hot summer’s day.”
Although my mum isn’t usually a red wine drinker, she found them both “absolutely delicious and has definitely been converted!”
We both had a wonderful time at the vineyard and having seen the hard work that goes into making wine for ourselves, every glass should be cherished, savoured and celebrated.
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