Gunyah Vineyard: Serving the local community

Gunyah Vineyard is the passion project of Mike Hayton.

Mike is a successful business owner –  he owns Belcom Cables Limited, which is a big international supplier and manufacturer of undersea cables for industry, and automation cables for factories.

However, son-in-law and creative director for Gunyah, Rob Wakefield describes Mike as a “repressed farmer”, commenting that he has harboured a love for farming ever since he was a young boy, when he helped out at the local farm during school holidays.

Rob adds: “Mike considered farm work as a career but with a young family to take care of, he needed something more financially stable, so set up his company which has now been trading successfully for nearly 30 years.” 

This afforded Mike the opportunity to buy a family home in the Essex countryside, and provided the financial stability to enable him to indulge his love of the land, without having to worry about the fiscal side.

So, Mike purchased a parcel of meadowland next to the family home, and announced that he was going to farm it in some way. At this point though, it didn’t occur to him that he could have a vineyard.

According to Rob, as a family they absolutely love wine. They used to own a property in Italy, so have enjoyed some amazing wines throughout their lives.

But it wasn’t until a friend of Mike’s daughter Emma visited, who worked in wine, that the concept of turning it into a vineyard was raised. She pointed out that the terroir was ideal for planting vines, and as soon as that seed was planted in Mike’s mind, that was it. 

In 2020, he contacted vineyard consultant VineWorks, who assessed the site and agreed it was perfectly suited for vines, and very quickly after, they installed a VSP trellising system and planted the vines. 

When Rob asked if the plan would be to sell the grapes to a winemaker, Mike answered “No – I’m going to make our own wine”.

With plenty of experience in advertising and marketing, it made perfect sense that Rob, who is Emma Hayton’s partner, should join the family business so that Mike could focus on the growing side, while Rob would deal with the branding and marketing of the wine.  

Efficient harvest

While Rob and Emma both work on the business side (with Emma as managing director), the vineyard has three permanent members of growing staff – Mark Franklin and Clive Beetlestone, who both take care of vineyard management, and Mike.

Instead of relying on local volunteers, Gunyah uses a team of professional pickers provided by VineWorks. Rob describes harvest as “being like a magic trick; you close your eyes for a few seconds, open them – and the grapes are harvested. It’s wonderful to watch them work and pick with them”.

When asked why they choose to use contracted pickers, Rob said: “Picking grapes involves a lot of skill. You need to know what to pick and what to leave, how to cut them safely and hygienically, and how to look after them.

Plus, whereas some vineyards might be picking from dawn ‘til dusk, we’ll be done before midday each day. Having 13 professional pickers behind the tractor is just the most efficient way for us to manage harvest as a small team. 

“As soon as those sugars are measuring where you want them to be, if you could press a button and bring all the grapes in instantly, you would because otherwise everything starts to decline from there. So we like knowing that our harvest can be done quickly, efficiently and professionally.” 

In 2023 Gunyah took about 13,000 bottles out of the vineyard, with around 13,000t of grapes. In contrast, as experienced by many vineyards across England and Wales, 2024 yielded almost half this amount.

“After the 2024 harvest, our winemakers said the quality of the grapes was amazing – it would just have been nice to have had more than a bin bag full of them!” shares Rob. In fact, there won’t be a 2024 Bacchus for Gunyah, as there simply wasn’t enough harvested – but Rob sees this as a positive, as the 2023 Bacchus is now in high demand.

Gunyah prides itself as being a single site vineyard, so at no point considered buying in Bacchus from another grower.

This year, however, has been a totally different experience for Gunyah, with 2024 yields hitting an impressive 14.5t.  

According to Rob: “We’ve really enjoyed our relationship so far with our winemaker, Defined Wine. In fact, our first two 2023 wines – Bacchus and a rosé – won both of the awards we entered them into. The Bacchus won a silver at the Independent English Wine Awards (IEWA), and the rose took a silver at the Essex Wine Awards – we couldn’t really ask for more from our first wines.”

Growing sustainably

Ultimately, Gunyah Vineyard would like to achieve organic certification, but Rob explains this takes a lot of time and patience, with a significant number of hoops to jump through. 

“We’re very keen to be as sustainable as possible,” explains Rob.  “We only use mechanical weed control, and our pest control is basically a bunch of kites and hawks who have taken up residence around the vineyard. 

“It’s been an absolute boon for us – some vineyards pay to have hawk masters and falconers come into the vineyard. But we’re just really lucky in the fact that we have two massive trees slap bang in the middle of the vineyard and they’re home to some nesting red kites. So we’ve got free pest control and security from those guys, and it’s definitely a deal that they’re happy with as well.”

While there are deer in the local area, Rob says it’s very rare for them to venture anywhere near the vineyard, thanks to the rail line that runs along the end of the land. “We do get a lot of rabbits, but there’s always at least four dogs in the vineyard, so the rabbits tend to keep them entertained!”  

With the exception of Bacchus, Pinot Meunier and Pinot Noir, all the varieties grown at Gunyah Vineyard are PiWi varieties, so diseases like botrytis and the mildews aren’t too much of a concern. An Agrovista agronomist advises on minimal sprays for disease control and nutrition.

Late frost, however, is one problem that the vineyard has encountered, particularly during 2024; so, following a demo of the Frolight system by VineWorks, Mike invested in the system to keep frost risks at bay.

So far, he’s been very happy with the result, and Rob even managed to win a second Frolight system complete with solar power source in a photography competition, so the whole vineyard is covered. 

Diversification

Rob uses Instagram as a way of documenting the vineyard’s progress, and building the brand. However, Mike is keen to ensure local relationships are prioritised, as he has historically supported the local community through charity work and sponsorship via his cable business, so the vineyard works with local restaurants and sets up a local pop-up shop on a weekly basis.

There are no current plans to offer vineyard tours or onsite tastings, as the vineyard is very much an extension of the family home, and Rob says for now it’s important that the children can safely play at home and enjoy an idyllic childhood. 

Infrastrucure is tricky and expensive, although Rob admits at some point a site shop could be a good investment. He is however looking at some other diversifications, which use vineyard waste in novel ways. Currently he’s looking into the feasibility of turning prunings into quirky pens, and Pinot Noir and Bacchus raisins marketed at adults rather than children. 

“At the end of the day,” says Rob: “This has not been set up as a commercial opportunity. It’s been set up as a labour of love – and eventually, if we’re doing it right and doing it well, then it will work out alright.”

Grower Profile

Owner: Mike Hayton

Location: Stansted Mountfitchet, Essex

Total vineyard size: 3.2ha

Soil type: Stony clay

Aspect: South facing slope with good drainage, around 106m above sea level, benefitting from the South East climate

Varieties grown: Sauvignac (1,590 vines); Souvigner Gris (1,810 vines); Bacchus (3,560 vines); Pinot Noir (3,420 vines); Pinot Meunier (1,065 vines); Regent (1,040 vines); and Cabaret Noir (1,560 vines)

For more information on Gunyah Vineyard, visit the website.

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