Some January cheer…
We are very happy to announce the arrival of Harry Pickering as our first in-house Winemaker. Harry’s appointment follows a six-month global search with over a hundred applicants from eleven countries – but he’s joining us from Gusbourne, just up the road in East Sussex. There he has worked with Charlie Holland since 2015, helping to establish a renowned range that stands at the forefront of English wine.
After training in land management, the wine bug bit bad and, over the last 11 years, Harry has gained experience at vineyards and wineries in the Corbieres AOC in France, in West (as well as East) Sussex and in the Waipara and Otago regions of New Zealand, where he also spent much of 2014 studying Viticulture and Oenology at Lincoln University.
The appointment is a critical step in the next phase of The Grange's development and, once he arrives in June, Harry will be overseeing the build and fit out of our sleek new winery designed by Timothy Hatton Architects (see above). After that he will be tasked with taking the complex, rich and layered sparkling style we have developed with Emma Rice at Hattingley to the next level, as well as developing new sparkling and still wines and setting up a small high-end contract wine-making operation.
After the nightmare of 2020, it looks like 2021 is going to be a busy year!
