A HAMPSHIRE vineyard is revolutionising British wine-making – with help from their chickens.

The family-owned Rose Charity Estate, which lies north of Winchester at Stoke Charity, is using a hands-on, permaculture-inspired approach to winemaking, and breaking ground in the process.

Wildflowers and chickens are the secret to owner Thomas Wilkinson's success, permitting him to grow grapes without the use of pesticides or heavy machinery.

In fact, the 2,500 bottles of British wine he hopes to make a year will all be produced exclusively through Thomas's hand-tending, with the help of his wife and two teenage children.

They planted this year and the earliest first vintage will be 2025. 

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Dogs in the vineyard (Image: Thomas Wilkinson)

All this is not just to whittle away the time – Thomas says the quality of the vines benefits as a result, meaning better wine. 

As well as working hard, Thomas is also busy thinking of ways to benefit from modern scientific knowledge of how grapes react to certain climates.

Rose Charity is the first vineyard in the UK to plant Calardis Blanc (white) and one of the very first few to grow Pinotin (red).

These vines are hybrid varieties from a nursery in Germany, which are a perfect match for the local climate and ground conditions.

This means less spraying or other unwanted interventions and better tasting wine, especially since the vines are hand-tended. To illustrate this, a vineyard would usually expect up to 5% of newly planted vines to fail.

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While other vineyards in the UK spray fungicides, insecticides, herbicides and pesticides as much as 16 times a season, the hybrid vines chosen at Rose Charity Estate will not be sprayed at all this year.

Instead, Thomas uses chickens to keep the number of pests down. 

In between each row of vines, wild flowers grow (including Ox-eye daisies, Field Poppies, Red Campions and about 30 other varieties).

This is already leading to improvements in biodiversity, such as a visible increase in the number of bees and other insects, also helping with pest management.

Those interested in finding out more (or buying a bottle) can visit the vineyard's website at rosecharityestate.com.