Producer Q&A: Tamara Roberts, Ridgeview Wine Estate

By Andrew Catchpole

Published: 26 November, 2024

As this Sussex winery heads into its 30th year, Andrew Catchpole catches up with one of the pillars of the modern English wine scene.

Would it be fair to say that Ridgeview bears the hallmarks of a family-run wine business, rather than being big and ‘shouty’?

We are quietly ambitious. I think that’s because Mum and Dad [Christine and Mike Roberts] started it in the very early days, and at a time when you didn’t really want to shout too much about it because you had absolutely no idea where it was going, of the potential. So it’s in our nature not to have personalities leading the business, because it’s my brother and me, and we want Ridgeview to be the brand, not us. And because we’ve come from an organic growth situation, rather than setting out really big ambitions, we haven’t had that ‘big bang’ moment.

Nonetheless, you’ve grown from 25,000 to 500,000 bottles, establishing a serious reputation for Ridgeview, plus a respected personal reputation both as a female CEO and a champion of sustainability. How important is it to support the wider industry?

We’ve always been very supportive, and that comes from Dad, being very much of the opinion that there’s no point us just having one or two producers in the UK. Everyone’s got to bring up the quality and standards across the whole industry and if we can play a part in that, help brands get started, help set a quality level, then that is good for everyone. It’s quite funny to think that none of us had any experience working in wine, in agriculture, growing grapes, building wineries, etc, but we learned and realised we could help other people learn from our mistakes.

You have ambitious expansion plans, to possibly double sales. How did that coalesce?

Before Covid we were growing sales and production in a consistent way. We started the expansion plans by contacting the growers who were planting around that time, to ensure additional supply, and then we built [a new facility] and we are seeing that come through now. We did take on some investment as well to support us for that growth and it was in fact the dreadful two years of Covid that helped enable us to find the time to do that.

Why is B Corp accreditation so important to you?

We did a big piece of work in 2018 on the values of our family business, trying to document them, how we should work, how we should make decisions.

We wanted to be very clear what Ridgeview was about, the essence of our values, also to our team here with new people coming in as we grow, but it’s difficult to communicate because it’s too disparate. B Corp sounded like the perfect solution, because it covers everything, you have to be doing well in all aspects of the business, not just some. And then your customers can see that you are treating your people well, balancing people and business and profits, while doing something about the environment as well. This is what all businesses should be doing. It’s about more than generating profit for the few; it’s about people, the community and the environment, and everyone needs to share in the benefits.

Could more be done by our wine industry to communicate on sustainability, climate, its role in agriculture and the rural community, especially given that wine is an emotive product?

It’s something I’m looking to do, to engage more on the benefits of sustainability and being sustainable to the local community. Obviously, in Sussex, Kent and Essex we’re in the heart of the wine industry and we’ve got a good mandate to talk about this, to engage more on the social and environmental side, to continue those conversations. We’re not treating the climate for what it is – a crisis. People still talk about change, which isn’t as dramatic, as alarming. But at some point this will trigger a crisis and some very draconian rules and regulations will be brought in. We need to turn the heat up a bit on those conversations right now.

What of the health of the English sparkling wine scene?

English wine is having a bit of a heyday, it’s still growing in a wine market that is declining, and there is still opportunity. We’re not flooding the market, people talk about ‘big brands’, but they’re not big, they are tiny, so there’s still room, and there’s lots of noise, new brands coming all the time, it’s very exciting. I’m quietly optimistic for the industry, sparkling is going like crazy and the still wines are coming through now as well. We’ve even made some for our Rows & Vine restaurant, a Chardonnay and a rosé.

How is Rows & Vine doing?

Very well. I’m very pleased to have added that, we get many more visitors and they dwell on site for longer, which is great, so it’s added an extra dimension to the business. It’s been one of the standout investments over the past few years.

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