Located just eight miles from the beaches of Brighton, Albourne Estate is a new player on the English wine scene.
Inspired by their travels through vineyards across Australia and New Zealand, owners Alison and Nick Nightingale first planted vines in 2010, and saw their first vintage come to fruition just three years later. Remaining a family-owned venture to this day, Albourne Estate crafts exciting, distinctive still and sparkling Sussex wine, using only their own handpicked grapes. Vineyards are all located across the slopes of the South Downs, where green sandstone soils, low frost risk and maximum sun exposure all work to combat the notoriously unreliable English weather.
The team at Albourne's aim is to create premium wines that truly reflect the terroir of their vineyards. To this end, the focus remains on preserving and enhancing the characteristically English crispness, freshness and delicate aromatic qualities of the grapes. The team pride themselves on their 'green' winemaking; the winery operates on 100% green energy, largely drawn from solar panelling. They also use green compost and sheep to control ground cover - for which they adopted four orphan lambs. Each one of Albourne's bottle labels features wildlife seen around the vineyard and winery, all representing their sympathetic approach to the environment.
