Missing Gate Vineyard
who we are and where we come from
We are a family-owned estate spanning 400 acres in the upper reaches of the Crouch Valley, located in the heart of Essex. Here, we have planted 100 acres of vines to produce the highest-quality still wines. We only use grapes that we carefully nurture ourselves, always aiming to create the finest quality fruit, regardless of what nature brings each season.
Although we are new to viticulture, our documented history dates back to Roman times. Archaeological discoveries, including coins, trading weights, and balance “steelyard” beams from an ancient trading post, have been found on a crest in the vineyard. This location overlooks Fenn Creek and the River Crouch, where salt was historically sold at the trading post.
Jumping forward to the 18th century, our farm records indicate that the estate land was classified by the number of horses necessary to pull a plough share and mouldboard. The steeper the hill and the poorer the soil quality, the more horsepower was required. We have discovered that the flavour of our grapes is linked to these variations, with more complex profiles developing on the steeper slopes that contain higher levels of igneous clay.
Our wine labels reflect these ancient influences on our modern wines, and we are proud to have carved out our own place in the future of wine history.
THE HORSE PRINCIPLE
-
Traditionally in the 1800s with the onset of the iron ploughshare and mouldboard, land in our region began to be described (informally) according to the number of horses required to pull one share. In most of the local low-lying Crouch Valley region the land is described as one horse. This then changes with elevation as you move upwards out of the lower reaches from the alluvial topsoil of a decent depth to the igneous-based clay paste that we have at Missing Gate Vineyard with little or no topsoil covering which needs more horses to work the soil. It is the same today with larger tractors needed to work our land which makes it less sustainable leading to change in practice, hence vines.
-
We believe to have found a correlation between the horses required and the depth/variations of flavours in grapes, probably derived by stress response and the uptake of different nutrients from our igneous-based soils compared to those available in alluvial soils. This associated with John Atkinson’s “Smectite Principle” of increased water-holding capacity and slow moisture release may lead to some of the different characteristics that are found in MGV wines in many years. (Montmorillonite smectite was detected early at surface level in the southern Loire Valley with a lower depth band over much of mid/southern France). We will be doing further work with research centres digging into this and testing the theory.
-
When we first set out to create a vineyard, our kindly neighbours advised us to make our rows at least 3 metres wide so that large tractors could be used to subsoil at the correct speed and depth to break up the compaction of soils caused by frequent mechanical interventions of spraying, trimming, leaf pulling, etc. we decided to make them as wide as possible at 3.3 metres [10.8 ft] to allow for the maximum lateral root growth before the barrier created by compacted wheel-marking inhibited further movement. It was clear that the vines would not be able to sink deep roots as the soils are devoid of oxygen and impermeable at below a metre except in very dry years so sideways was the only option and that was the maximum row width that standard vineyard equipment could reach. Additionally, I felt that this was the most sustainable planting density based on our poor soil quality and the need to have as much uninterrupted sun and best air and frost drainage which would result in lower disease pressure and therefore fewer chemical interventions.