Celebrating 25 years of Ridgeview in 2020

In an era where English wine is winning global accolades and English winemaking is now considered one of the most exciting new areas of growth within the world’s wine industry, there has been one family-run wine estate that has been a constant.

Twenty-five years ago, the Roberts family made their dream a reality by planting a vineyard in Sussex and, from that point, helped pioneer a hugely burgeoning English sparkling wine industry and in turn change the reputation of English wine.

In 2020 Ridgeview are celebrating 25 years of award-winning English winemaking, headed up by second generation CEO Tamara Roberts and her brother, Head Winemaker Simon Roberts.

Nestled at the foot of the South Downs in Sussex in England, Ridgeview has been at the forefront of crafting traditional method English sparkling wines solely from Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Their wines have been regularly served at a collection of Royal occasions, State Banquets and globally acclaimed restaurants. Ridgeview has been a powerful force in the incredible evolution of English Sparkling Wine since its inception 25 years ago, and it continues to be an industry leader as an influential business and with the quality of wine being produced. The ultimate reward for their utmost dedication was bestowed on Ridgeview when they were acclaimed ‘International Winemakers of the Year’ in the IWSC, a historical first for English Wine. 2019 continued to be a ground-breaking year for Ridgeview, crowned No. 36 in the World’s Best Vineyards (the only English winery to be listed) and CEO Tamara Roberts elected as President of the IWSC alongside being named as Sussex Businessperson of the Year.

Throughout 2020, Ridgeview will be celebrating 25 years, thanking those that have been a part of their past, as well as nurturing the next generation of industry pioneers and wine enthusiasts. Due to Covid-19 many of Ridgeview’s 25th Anniversary events have been put on hold until 2021, including the brilliant Ridgefest music and street food festival in August. However it has been a great year to reflect on their amazing achievements of the past 25 years and more importantly planning for exciting future expansion plans.

Tamara Roberts, CEO, says: “We are very excited to celebrate Ridgeview’s 25th Anniversary in 2020. In a quarter of a century, through dedication, hard work and fun we have built our reputation as one of England’s leading sparkling wine producers whilst remaining true to our values both as a family and as a business. We’re extremely proud of our incredible team and how much we have achieved in a 1/4 century with the support of our customers and clients who have been a part of Ridgeview’s journey. We are now excited about looking forward to the next 25 years by helping shape the future generation of the English wine industry.”

Throughout their anniversary Ridgeview will be celebrating their philosphy ‘Life is for Celebrating’, which is revealed in the inside of the foil on opening every bottle. It is their belief that all moments in our everday life are there for celebrating, whether it be the sun is out or the first time catching up with family after spending time apart, celebrating the moments that matter.

Not only are Ridgeview passionate about producing the highest quality sparkling wine they are involved a national level of overall promotion of best practice. From onset, Ridgeview has worked very closely with the local education provider Plumpton College and employed many winemaking and viticulture graduates. Ridgeview is also represented at board level on of Wines of GB, Wine & Spirits Trade Association and involved with many local Sussex based business and tourisms bodies, including the brilliant initiative Sussex Modern linking Art, Wine and Landscape in our beautiful county.

In July after receiving the official ‘Go to go status’ from Visit Britain, Ridgeview have opened their Wine Garden adjacent to the vineyard. Guests are invited to visit Ridgeview seven days a week for self-guided tasting flights by the vines with accompanied Sussex platters or pre booked hampers. Safe socially distanced tours have also resumed, operating with an insight into sparkling wine production from vine to glass, followed by a tutored tasting with a member of the team. Ridgeview encourage visitors to come and enjoy their gorgeous views of the vines set amongst the South Downs National Park whilst celebrating the success of 25 years of Ridgeview and the exciting future of English sparkling wine.

The Ridgeview story

Ridgeview began as a dream in the 1990s by English husband and wife team Mike and Christine Roberts, to create world-class sparkling wine on the foothills of the South Downs in Sussex. Ever the entrepreneurs, Mike and Chris began an IT business in the 1980s in their front room, and by the end of the decade, were the biggest IBM dealer in the UK. They were offered a take-over by an American computer business that they couldn’t refuse and were bought-out in the early 1990s. During the time of developing their IT business, they had lots to celebrate and discovered a joy of wine, in particular Champagne.

Once the business was sold, retirement was never on the cards as it wasn’t in either of their natures. They originally mooted the idea of buying a vineyard in France but did not want to leave their beloved England. Mike thoroughly researched what the best wine would be to make in the UK and would quote that ‘it wasn’t rocket science’ that the best idea would be to follow in the footsteps of our nearest most successful cool climate wine region, our neighbours Champagne. Their research found that Southern England’s soils, geography, and cool climate were perfect for sparkling wine production from the traditional varieties Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier. At the time it was a huge risk and virtually unheard of, to invest such a large amount of time and resource into an English sparkling vineyard.

The perfect site was found near the South Downs in Sussex and production began. Not only was a huge investment made into the perfect site for the vineyards, but no expense was also spared creating an at-the-time, one of England’s biggest underground cellars, perfect for traditional bottle fermentation. The original production was around 20,000 bottles. Once the first wine was released in 2000, Ridgeview went onto win the UK Trophy for England’s Best Sparkling wine; international awards and accolades soon followed.

Mike trained in Winemaking and Viticulture at Plumpton, the only wine college in England, fortunately, 10 minutes from the vineyard. Mike was soon joined by his son Simon Roberts who developed an interest in the family business. At the beginning of Ridgeview’s story, they also were supported by the very experienced Winemaker Kit Lindlar, who Mike and Simon had trained under. Simon moved to Australia to further his winemaking skills, it was there he met his soon-to-be wife Mardi who also worked in the wine industry. Mardi returned to the UK with Simon, with a focus on marketing, and is Ridgeview’s Director of Communications still to this day, 21 years later. Simon is now Head of Winemaking. and has had the responsibility for helping blend all Ridgeview’s wines from onset resulting in remarkable consistency in the quality, balance of Ridgeview sparkling wines.

In 2004 Mike and Chris’s daughter Tamara joined Ridgeview from a successful career in finance to grow the family business. Tamara’s husband Simon Larder also joined as Technical Manager. The real pivotal moment in Ridgeview’s success came in 2010 when Ridgeview was awarded the ‘Best International Sparkling Wine’ in the Decanter World Wine Awards, the first and only time a wine other than Champagne has won this trophy. The news rippled around the world and global export enquiries came flooding in and Ridgeview’s export journey began.

Founder Mike Roberts was not just impassioned with the growth of Ridgeview, it was always his intention that our whole English Wine Industry would become globally renowned as an area of excellence for world-class sparkling wine. Mike was Chairman for the then national body, English Wine Producers, a role he held for 10 years and on the steering committee for the government national wine standards reform policy. Mike was often asked to speak on behalf of the industry and as a testament to his dedication, diligence, and the impact he made, was the honour of receiving a Queens Award MBE in 2011 for his service to the English Wine Industry. Mike sadly passed away in November 2014 and tributes flowed from across the international wine world, praising his pioneering spirit and the inspiration he provided to so many people.

Tamara took over as CEO of Ridgeview from her father in 2013. Along the way, in the pioneering strength and determination of her father, not only has Tamara grown Ridgeview into a globally acclaimed producer, she is on the board of Wine & Spirits Trade Association, Wines GB awarded Sussex Businessperson of the Year in 2019 and the only English producer to be awarded the prestigious title of President of the International Wine and Spirit Association in 2020.

Ridgeview has led the way in export, with our wines now being sent to over 17 countries around the globe. Ridgeview has achieved many global accolades along the way including the current IWSC International Winemaker of the Year (A first for English Wine) and Number 36 Best Vineyard in the World to Visit, the only English Vineyard included in this prestigious list. Ridgeview sparkling wines have been served at many prestigious occasions including the The Queen’s 80th Birthday celebrations, Her Majesty’s Diamond Jubilee, and four State Banquets at Buckingham Palace including being served to Barack Obama.

The company has grown to over 30 employees, with four members of the family maintain leading roles within the business. Family values are incredibly important to Ridgeview and they flow through the whole business, all team members are valued as wider members of the family, and Ridgeview love to nurture employee’s careers whilst at Ridgeview and beyond. Ridgeview has recently built an additional winery on-site which includes an underground cellar with the capacity to store up to one million bottles during their secondary fermentation.

In general the winery is open every-day for drop-in visitors and tours by appointment. The company sees a great feature in wine tourism in the beautiful area of Southern England. Now that the industry has proven that England is capable of producing world-class sparkling wines they look forward to attracting national and global visitors to the region.

Summer opening times are:

Monday – Thursday: 11am – 4pm
Friday, Saturday  & Sunday: 11am – 6pm

www.ridgeview.co.uk