Case Study Overview
Marlings Vineyard is a boutique vineyard & winery producing award-winning wines in the New Forest. David's production aims were ...
- Winery equipment for producing 4,000 litres of wine per year
- Flexible tank capacity
- A ROPP capper (rather than corker)
We supplied a complete winery.
After taking on Marlings Vineyard, a 3.5 acre vineyard in the New Forest, David Balls established a winery on the site. David since went on to win United Kingdom Vineyard Association awards for his Three Cows red, white and rosé wine.
A small winery with a capacity of 4,000 litres of red/white wine was required with both variable and fixed capacity tanks to allow for flexibility.
For David, winemaking was all about capturing the flavours and aromas of his fruit and it was important that bottling reinforced this.
After much research, he was impressed with the consistent results of screw caps and believed that corks are not a necessary requirement for the style of English wine. As a result, he chose to close his bottles with screw (ROPP) caps.
We supplied a grape destalker, horizontal pneumatic press, Speidel fixed capacity and variable capacity tanks of 675 and 290 litres, a Schneider variable speed rubber impeller pump, 20 cm plate filter, pre-bottling filter assembly, gravity feed filler, all necessary fittings and pipework, and a semi-automatic ROPP capper.
UPDATE: Marlings Vineyard is now under new ownership and continues to produce award-winning wines, which are sold under the 'Marlings' brand.
Feedback
'After spending a long time talking to various suppliers, here and abroad, I decided to purchase the equipment through Vigo Ltd. I have nothing but praise for the team. I could have probably sourced some of the items more cheaply but to have one supplier with the experience and the ability to supply an end-to-end solution convinced me. I am sure I made the right choice. I spent time with Vigo, talking through my objectives and my proposed equipment list. They immediately picked up on some items I had missed and
'After spending a long time talking to various suppliers, here and abroad, I decided to purchase the equipment through Vigo Ltd. I have nothing but praise for the team. I could have probably sourced some of the items more cheaply but to have one supplier with the experience and the ability to supply an end-to-end solution convinced me. I am sure I made the right choice. I spent time with Vigo, talking through my objectives and my proposed equipment list. They immediately picked up on some items I had missed and suggested some alterations, all of which could be done in house at Vigo. Pre-shipping everything was organised to ensure that the process would flow as expected. When unpacked, it was all there, and worked as planned during a dry (wet) run.
When put in operation for the first time during harvest, everything went to plan, with only one tiny hiccup which was solved by a few turns of the ubiquitous Duck Tape. A few weeks later when I decided I wanted a bypass for the variable speed pump, Vigo sent it without charge, as a gesture of goodwill for the business I had given them.
As you may guess I would recommend them to anyone thinking of buying.'
David Balls, Marlings Vineyard - as featured in The Grapepress
UPDATE: Marlings Vineyard is now under new ownership and continues to produce award-winning wines, which are sold under the 'Marlings' brand.