Laithwaites - Theale Vineyard
Our tiny vineyard was planted in 1999 on a large mound of South – facing rubble just behind our head office between the railway line and Junction 12 of the M4. When Tony Laithwaite saw the building rubble during the building of our new offices he said 'Why not plant a vineyard'. We did – planting just Chardonnay and exactly as they do in Champagne.
The vineyard serves as our base for the WSET Viticulture lectures we run for staff and customers and is tended through the year by staff, customers and students from our local SEN school. Harvest takes just a couple of hours and the grapes are taken to Ridgeview where they are looked after by Mike Roberts and the team.
The maiden vintage, 2003, was voted 7th best sparkling wine in the world at the Effervescents du Monde competition held in France. The 2007 vintage was voted 2nd best (Wyfold came first) English Sparkling Wine at the Judgement of Parson’s Green III tasting.
