It happened by delicious accident. In July 2018 Holly Robbins and James Faulconbridge made a day trip to St. Martin’s during their first ever visit to Scilly. Wine fans both, they dropped in to see the island’s tiny vineyard, run for the previous 22 years by Graham Thomas and his St. Martin’s-born wife Val on land that had previously been a narcissus farm. As they entered the winery after a self-guided tour, Val casually asked if they knew anyone who might be interested in taking over the business.
“We bought a bottle of their Orion and sat on the beach at Great Bay,” says Holly. “We were from landlocked Nottinghamshire and although we made fruit wines and had an allotment at home, we knew nothing about grapes. But we couldn’t get the vineyard out of our heads. I emailed Val to ask if she was serious.”
The couple returned in September, and again the following year. “We were desperately trying to talk ourselves out of it,” says Holly. “There was no house, and Val warned us that some years a harvest could be completely wiped out by freak storms or salt-saturated south-westerlies. But the idea wouldn’t go away.”
By February 2020 the deed was done, the couple stepped off the boat onto Higher Town quay with their possessions and two cats, and their new life began. They slept in a yurt, having gained permission to build a house and two shepherd’s huts as holiday lets at a later date (now open). Behind them they’d left friends, family and stable jobs. Holly, who had a psychology degree and a training in hypnotherapy, had done 12 years in the international division of John Deere tractors. James had been working as an ecology consultant.
James’ background as an ecologist rather than a farmer meant his approach to managing a vineyard wasn’t your usual. He wanted to run the 5-acre plot in a regenerative way. So herbicides, fertilisers and fungicides were out - including copper and sulphur which are permitted for use even by organically certified farmers. Instead, the pair believed that by nurturing the soils in which they grew, the vines would build up the strength to fight off diseases. “People told us vines couldn’t be grown without chemical fungicides, but we decided to try it anyway,” smiles Holly.
“We see our vineyard not as an agricultural crop that needs to be controlled, but as an ecosystem,” says James. “For us, it’s about trusting natural processes to support the vines. If you start using sprays you can sometimes solve one problem but end up creating more. So we interfere as little as possible, avoid disturbing the soil, and let nature find its own balance.”
Tour the vineyard’s nine tiny fields, all protected from the winds by high hedges of pittosporum, and you see what James means. Colourful clover and mustard sown between the rows of vines act as green manures, aimed at improving the soils. Rainwater is harvested to provide irrigation and areas of grass are left to grow wild as a habitat for wildlife. For fertiliser, the pair use homemade compost or seaweed, harvested from the beach.
Flowers, birds, butterflies and insects have flourished. Visitors regularly spot romantically named lady’s tresses orchids and hairy birdsfoot trefoil. Songbirds are thriving too - although they aren’t quite so welcome at harvest time when they show a keen appetite for the grapes, meaning that James and Holly have to net them.
But it’s worth the hard work, says Holly. “Guests always comment on the birdsong and the hum of insects. It’s a very different experience from the sterile ordered rows of vines you find on many commercial vineyards.”
The grapes are different too. Varieties - 11 in total - were chosen for their resistance to diseases such as mildew, and for their different ripening times in case one grape variety is hit by bad weather. So in the Winery Field, look out for German Siegerrebe grapes, which produce an aromatic wine similar to a Gewurztraminer. The top field, with its dreamy views out to the Eastern Isles, is home to red Rondo and to Orion, the vineyard’s most widely planted grape and good as a single-variety wine. Dark-skinned Regent dominates the largest field, fondly known as The Prison, a name dating back to the days when the site was a flower farm and harvesting the unusually big field seemed a daunting task to its weary pickers. Holly admits that when she’s pruning her way through its 281 vines, she starts to understand how they felt.
Learning how to grow the vines and blend the wines has been a fast learning curve but the couple are lucky enough to be able to draw on Val’s advice when needed. Once the wines are ready for drinking, tastings are offered outside the winery, that’s based in a stunning granite building that was once a cattle byre. The atmosphere, like Holly and James, is friendly and approachable. “We try not to intimidate people with wine language,” Holly smiles.
Holly and James are not restricting themselves to producing wine though. They’re also harvesting the vineyard’s apple trees, many of them native Scilly Pearls, to press into a beautifully sweet apple juice which is sold on the honesty stall at the gate. Last year the vineyard managed 2,500 half-litre bottles and in years to come the amount is set to increase as this winter the pair have planted a fruit orchard, along with 100 non-fruiting native trees, on their steep higher fields that are unsuitable for vines. James and Holly make beer too. And in autumn harvest their wild blackberries to make a lovely liqueur using base spirit from SC Dogs up the road. “It’s the perfect tipple for those evenings when it’s blowing a hoolie,” smiles Holly.
Image credit: adjbrown.com
