A golf course, turned to vine

The estate's roots trace to 2017, when the first vines were planted across what had been the Kingfisher course at Mannings Heath, just three miles from Leonardslee Lakes & Gardens. The team researched extensively, tasting wines from different regions and identifying locations with the ideal climate and one part of the course ticked every box. A fairway with bunkers became a vineyard.

"Lots of wine estates claim their product is unique by highlighting the chalk or granite content of the soil," Johann recalls. "Well, what we have in our soil is golf balls! On the first day, we collected them in baskets, but soon gave up there were too many." Today over 70,000 vines grow across 38-acres, with a second site flowing down from Leonardslee House itself.

—The Plantings

The classic three, and a South African nod

60%

Chardonnay

The backbone of the estate bringing citrus, brioche and the bright, precise acidity that defines cool-climate sparkling.

30%

Pinot Noir

Structure, red-fruit depth and length, anchoring the Brut Reserve and lending the Rosé its raspberry and cranberry lift.

10%

Pinot Meunier

The classic Champagne third variety, rounding the blend with approachable fruit and softness.

Adjacent to Leonardslee House grows a small experimental plot of Pinotage the first commercial planting of the variety in the UK. Cold-macerated and used in small measure in the Brut Rosé, it is a deliberate nod to the family's South African home. As Johann puts it: "In England, even the black grapes have no colour."

Estate Grown · Estate Made

"Whatever is poured into the glass should take you back to its origins."

— Working With Nature

Two vintages, two very different hands of cards

The 2020 growing season was, in Johann's words, "textbook." The 2021 was "a completely different deck of cards" disease pressure threatened the vines and a low degree-days value left grapes very high in acidity. The vineyard team opened up the canopy; in the winery, malolactic fermentation tamed the acidity.

Sustainability runs through everything. The estate works with nature, not against it reducing mechanisation, fertilising naturally, and maintaining permanent cover beneath the vines to manage Sussex's generous rainfall. The family chose against buying in grapes to launch quickly: it didn't fit their approach.

2020 First harvest

100k Bottles per year (target)

38 Acres under vine

70k+ Vines cultivated

Where place becomes character

Every vineyard tells a story of its landscape. At Leonardslee, the character of Sussex shapes how our vines grow, how our grapes develop and, ultimately, the wines we create.

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Ancient Wealden soils,a fairway reborn