We’re Henry, Harriet and family. We moved to the vineyard in 2018, and were new to winemaking, viticulture, and parenting. We stripped off our corporate suits and cut through our safety nets (with babe coming the next week), and jumped headfirst into this epic adventure. Skin fully in the game.
Why?
We’re asked this often, and sometimes at 3am we ask ourselves.
Perhaps the best articulation of this, is a piece written by Harriet a year before we took the plunge – when we were starting to dream – called “Longing For Joy”. Harriet was wrestling with that quiet voice saying she needed big, hand-in-the-soil change and working through the courage to jump out of a successful corporate job, and into the unknown. With a bit of hindsight, we can now see through this written piece how a thread from her “wool bundle” was leading us here to create this story.
It was a big risk, potentially foolhardy, but there was something gnawing at us to slow down, get off the good ship “progress”, and use our hands and our hearts to create something real. To move towards small and local, and away form something huge and global. To become producers rather than consumers. And to produce in a way that gives life and energy.
The leap was aided by the previous owners, the brilliant Bellchamber family, who we instantly fell in love with and everything they stood for. Eric Bellchambers committed to sticking around for us and eased us into the unknown and his wider family smoothed the transition from town to country by supporting in ways too many to count.
And here we are. Years into it, and starting to get the rhythm and confidence and enjoy the rollercoaster. We’ve been held by our friends and broader community, and welcomed into a brilliant community of winemakers and viticulturalists who share our values and gumption. So much so, we’ve created a new label called Kind Folk: an ode and celebration to those generous people. They truly are the ‘notes’ of the wine.
