The estate
One family, one slope, forty-seven years of vines.
Marledon is a south-facing shoulder of chalk above the village of Ledbourne. The same family has farmed it since before there were vines on it, and still does every job that matters.
What is under the vines?
Half a metre of flinty brown soil, then chalk, all the way down. It drains fast after rain and holds water deep in a dry summer, and it keeps the grapes cool enough to keep the bright acidity sparkling wine is built on.
It is the same seam of chalk that runs under the Channel to the Champagne region. We farm it without herbicides, with wildflowers and clover between the rows.
Why chalk matters
Forty-seven years in six lines
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1979
The first 2,000 Pinot Noir vines go in at the top of the slope, on a farm that had grown barley for a century.
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1992
The first sparkling wine, 1,100 bottles, riddled by hand in the farmhouse cellar.
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2004
Chardonnay planted on the upper chalk; the old barley barn becomes the winery.
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2014
The cellar door opens, three afternoons a week. The first tour has four guests.
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2021
Solar roof on the barn and the last herbicide gone from the vineyard.
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Today
16 hectares, eight wines, 38,000 bottles a year and a cellar door open five days a week.
The people you will meet
Six of us work here all year, and twenty-five more join for harvest.
- Eleanor Marle · Owner and vineyard manager Grew up between the rows, took over from her father in 2009 and still prunes the 1979 block herself.
- Tomas Reyna · Winemaker Trained in the Champagne region, joined in 2012 and has made every Marledon sparkling wine since.
- Priya Hale · Cellar door and club Runs the tastings, the tours and the club. If you have emailed us, it was probably Priya who replied.
Farming for the next forty years
- herbicides or insecticides on the vineyard since 2021
- 0herbicides or insecticides on the vineyard since 2021
- of fruit picked by hand into small crates
- 100%of fruit picked by hand into small crates
- of the winery's power from the barn roof
- 60%of the winery's power from the barn roof
- miles to the glassworks that makes our bottles
- 12miles to the glassworks that makes our bottles
Walk the slope with us
The vineyard tour climbs through the 1979 block, stops where the plough turns up the chalk and ends with a seated tasting.