We want to achieve a biodiversity net gain across our small estate, whilst producing high quality award winning wines and we believe the two aims are not just compatible but more importantly, complementary.  We aim to increase the biodiversity of plants, invertebrates, mammals, amphibians, birds and reptiles right across our vineyards; and in and around our orchard. 

We are custodians of ancient hay meadows, woodlands and hedgerows that are actually, locally, quite rich in life and species. But that's not the norm, in recent centuries, and particularly these last eight or so decades, we've seen an overall decline in species and biomes in our countryside.  Whilst on the face of it we live in a green and pleasant land of fields and hedges, that's really, mostly, just a veneer of what should be there.  The sad fact is we are one of the most nature depleted countries on earth.  And sadly, that's in part due to modern agricultural practices; intensification, chemical fertilisers, pesticides and herbicides have all contributed to a loss of species and biodiversity on a scale that's frightening.  We also suffer from what's known as shifting baseline syndrome, we've become accustomed to the loss of biodiversity around us, and we don't realise what we've lost. We’ve become used to viewing our ecologically depleted countryside as ancient, typically English and normal. And it’s far from it. Even sadder, we've broadly taken a position of trying to defend the status quo, because that's what's familiar to us as 'the countryside.' Social media in particular reinforces this.

Our countryside of hedges, walls, grazing sheep and cattle, interspersed with woodlands, or our moorlands shrouded in purple heathers and tussocks of grasses paint quintessentially English pastoral scenes, or upland scenes.  And they are beautiful, celebrated and, in the eyes of many people what we're fighting to protect when we talk about countryside.  And beautiful though they maybe, these intensified agricultural landscapes, or landscapes preserved by sheep grazing and for grouse, are severely limiting for wildlife and for plant species diversity.

But what if we could farm in harmony with nature? Using sound science to minimise inputs like fertilisers and pesticides and make biodiversity work for us?  This is what we're trying to do at Amber Valley Vineyards.

We’re not saying those scenes we describe above are wrong and should be forever changed, at the expense of farming, far from it. What we’re saying is where we can farm differently in the right places and see different results and improved biodiversity as a consequence, then we should try.  Indeed, agriculture has a big job - to feed us all - and in that role we should support it, but the agriculture of decades past is very different from now.  There's a balance to be struck somewhere.

We have over the last 10 years changed our management practices to encourage more species, and it's working.  The land around our main vineyard is relatively secluded and wild and we're seeing effects of changed management.  We also have land that is registered as wildlife sites and we're working to ensure a return of species that we perhaps haven't really seen on our land since the end of World War 2, at least.  Things like ancient wildflower meadows, hedgerows teeming with yellow hammers, fields carpeted with yellow rattle and cowslips and orchids.  What's more we think if we get the balance right we can encourage better crops and soil health as well.  In doing this we actually practice what's known as regenerative viticulture.

More about Regenerative Viticulture...

On our estate in the Amber Valley we practice    regenerative viticulture    (click the link to find out more), growing organically to work in harmony with nature to ensure we have healthy living soils that sequester more carbon and harness beneficial ecosystems to provide ecosystem services that look after our vines.  We are working gradually towards being a net zero carbon business too, indeed we're almost there! Our business premises are powered by wind and solar that we capture and store in batteries, which we use to power fridges, lighting, charge our portable generator batteries and our battery powered power tools, which includes strimmers and hedge cutters and so on. 

How You Can Help

We hope to start a new and interesting biodiversity project later this year (2024), which we will seek to crowdfund.  Keep an eye on social media in the meantime.  From time to time we'll be putting on short courses and volunteer activities that help us to meet our aims.  There are a number of exciting projects in the pipeline!

Car Park voluntary payment scheme,  for markets and tours etc. Your voluntary parking payment helps to support our work in ensuring we can manage the whole estate in accordance with our principles.  We don't access grants for any of this work at present, our holdings are generally too small.  Your payment wouldn't replace the normal investment that we make as part of the day-to-day running of our small estate but it ensures we can do a bit more to enhance biodiversity and achieve our aims.

To visit the online parking payment page, please    click here