Matt Gregory

Oakham, Rutland | Canelli, Piemonte

Matt Gregory has worked on and off in the wine trade for 25 years and like many has harboured a dream to make his own wine.  In 2016 he decided to scratch that itch and worked a vintage in New Zealand with old Oddbins mate Theo Coles (who is ‘The Hermit Ram’).  This was followed by a stint at Nyetimber in the summer of 2017 and a plan was definitely coming together.  In 2018 the plan formulated with Andrea Faccio (Villa Giada, Piemonte) was hatched and the first ‘English Winemaker’ wines were brought to life.

It is worth mentioning at this point that Matt lives in Oakham where, and he used to works with us, happily he no longer needs to split his day and simply points ‘Big Red’ (a weathered SWB Landy) north to Walton Brook (or Mallard Point) vineyard - there is always plenty to be getting on with.

So, The English Winemaker is on back burner, Matt has the lease for the vines of Walton Brook and is vignaiolo and enologo, a rare breed in the English wine world. 

The vineyard is 3 hectares, on fine grained Jurassic limestone with carbonates of coral and shell, which are overlain with glacial deposits of flint, limestone and quartz.  The land is south facing at roughly 100m between the Vale of Belvoir and the Vale of Melton. 

The vines were planted in 2009 and 2010 with Pinot Noir, Pinot Gris and Bacchus, 2000 of each variety and another 2500 vines of: Solaris, Seyval Blanc, Regent and Madeleine Angevine.

Matt’s philosophy has a certain clarity, the objective is to make terroir-driven, expressive, vibrant wines that are not overly twisted by the hand of man.