Should I buy Breaky Bottom?

England’s greatest vineyard is up for sale. I use the word advisedly because while there are other excellent sparkling wine producers in this country, largely their wines come from multiple vineyards. No one can compete with Breaky Bottom’s 50 year plus track record of turning out unique wine from a six acre plot near Brighton. Over the years Breaky Bottom has proved a great favourite of the current King and Queen, sold by Corney & Barrow wine merchants and stocked in Michelin-starred restaurants.

The asking price? A cool £4 million. I know what you’re thinking: should I buy it?

First a quick recap. Breaky Bottom vineyard was founded in 1974 by Peter Hall and his first wife Diane on a small holding in a steep valley in Sussex where they kept pigs and sheep. The Halls had no practical experience of viticulture but armed with some books on viticulture in England, they planted Seyval Blanc and Müller-Thurgau vines by hand. These hardy unglamorous varieties were the backbone of the English wine industry at the time but rather than make sweet German style wines Hall, who was half-French, wanted to make dry wines like they have in France.

They faced a series of biblical trials by flooding and pestilence in the form of voracious pheasants which ate all the grapes

Initially success proved difficult. The first vintage, 1976, was ruined by a German wine maker. After that, Hall took control. They faced a series of biblical trials by flooding and pestilence in the form of voracious pheasants which ate all the grapes. Most of all, however, they struggled with what Hall called “the bloody awful” weather years. Ripening grapes in Southern England was not easy.

Nevertheless, by doing things his own way, Hall built a reputation for making the best wines in England — though in some years that may not have been saying much. In the 1990s, Hall switched to making sparkling wine. He tore out the Müller-Thurgau and replaced it with Chardonnay and Pinot Noir —  but kept the Seyval Blanc. Somehow, from this variety that one fellow winemaker compared to “cabbage and potatoes”, he created wines that were not only of superb quality but unique to a small patch of land in Sussex. England’s first, and perhaps only, vin de terroir. The Romanée-Conti of the South Downs, if you want to get carried away.

The wines were good but people were also drawn to the character of Hall. In later years he looked like a cross between a rock star and the ancient mariner with his striped sweater, sailor’s cap and the constant smoking of roll-up cigarettes. He told outrageous stories and quoted poetry often in a mixture of English and French. When I first met him he told me that the myth that a teaspoon keeps the fizz in a bottle of champagne was put about by the “powerful spoon lobby.”

At 82 Hall died in October last year. His second wife Christina survives him but she is not well, so Breaky Bottom passed into the hands of Hall’s children and step-children. The plan was for them to run the vineyard but this week they announced that the property was up for sale. His son Toby Hall said: “Our dream was to continue the magic that Dad created here, but multiple practical considerations mean that we have now, reluctantly and sadly, accepted that we need to offer the vineyard and farm for sale.”

So what are you getting for your £4 million? Probably the most beautiful vineyard in England. Breaky Bottom, located not far from the fleshpots of Brighton, feels like somewhere cut off from geography and time. The vines grow up either side of steep hills, as if you are in Alsace, with an old farmhouse and nineteenth century flint barn nestled at the bottom. There are six acres of vines, around 2.5 hectares, which produces around 10,000 bottles of wine per year. Into the deal there is a “significant library of wines from 2009 to 2025” which translates into about five vintages worth. You also have the Breaky Bottom brand which, though highly regarded by wine lovers, is not exactly a household name. It’s going to be a challenge getting a return on your investment. 

Time for some back of a fag packet maths. The latest vintages of Breaky Bottom retails for about £40 a bottle. Once you take into account the retailer’s margin, VAT and duty, I think you’d be lucky to get £15 a bottle. Breaky Bottom also releases more expensive older wines, but you will have to take into account storage, capital tied up and inflation. The estate also sells some direct to customers via its website, which means no margin for retailers. Plucking a figure out of thin air, let’s say turnover is £200,000 a year. Annual expenses growing wines in England could eat into half of that. 

There’s one full time member of staff, Louisa Adams, but over the years Hall relied on help from some of the biggest names in English wine, including writer and consultant Stephen Skelton, Dermot Sugrue (formerly of Nyetimber and Wiston) and Emma Rice (formerly of Hattingley Valley). Plus unpaid labour at harvest from journalists such as Johnny Ray and Andrew Jefford. Everyone loved Peter and wanted to help out. Furthermore the final step in the winemaking process, disgorgement, takes place at nearby Ridgeview. I imagine the winemaker there, Simon Roberts, probably didn’t charge him the going rate as Hall was a friend and mentor. When the new owner takes over all this free or discount expertise will disappear. 

I imagine that the place could do with investment. Hall never had much money. One of the biggest conundrums is tourism: Hall used to put on musical evenings, including one when Nigel Kennedy played in the winery. But more systematic tourism is going to be difficult because the road into Breaky Bottom is so bad. Regular visitors would destroy the magic of the place. It’s hard to preserve that Narnia feel if there’s a car park and a gift shop. I don’t think anyone would forgive a new owner who did this. 

I can’t see how anyone would buy the place as a business proposition. The production is too small and the challenges too great. What the place needs is a custodian who loves Breaky Bottom as it is and is willing to put the work and money in.  Someone commented to me that the best buyer might be another English wine producer who would have all the winemaking and expertise in place and keep Breaky Bottom as a special single vineyard wine. Everything has to change so that everything stays the same. 

But will people be as interested in Breaky Bottom without the great impresario himself? We’re always told that selling wine is about telling stories, and nobody did it better than Peter Hall. Time will tell.