Auree Admires | Michael Kennedy of Roebuck Estates
English Sparkling Wine is having a moment, and one of the leading producers at the forefront of its growth is Roebuck Estates. Founded in 2013 by two wine lovers, their vision was to produce exceptional vintage sparkling wine every year, that could be enjoyed in the best restaurants around the world whilst also leaving only the lightest possible footprint on our environment.
We caught up with Roebuck's CEO Michael Kennedy to find out what it takes to run an award winning wine company.
Tell us a little about yourself – how did you end up leading the team at Roebuck Estates?
I have worked in the drinks industry for a long time - over 20+ years – and, whilst I have been focused on spirits during that time, I have always had a keen interest in wine and have had a few wine cameos - spending about a year as a wine buyer at M&S, and also buying a Franciacorta sparkling brand when I was running an Italian drinks business. Having been a fan of English wine, particularly English sparkling, I jumped at the chance of joining Roebuck Estates when I was approached.
What would a typical day be for you?
It is a massive cliché but there is no typical day. If I look at the last couple of weeks, I have attended trade tastings in Paris, Stockholm, Edinburgh and London, developed our planning application for a new visitor building at our Petworth vineyard, and worked with our in-house ecologist on plans for a potential new pond at one of our sites. Working closely with our Head of Marketing, we’ve also been looking at some new sustainable packaging options. Most excitingly of all, we’ve just signed a new agreement with the RHS for Roebuck to be the exclusive sparkling wine of Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival for a second year!
It is a fantastically varied role - if you think about it, there are three key parts to the business: a farming business - growing exceptional fruit; a wine making business, producing high-quality wines; and a sales and marketing business - creating exciting plans and activities for our consumers and trade partners.
What are your favourite parts of running Roebuck Estates?
I love the varied nature of the role, as well as the fact that we are part of a small but enormously dynamic, emerging wine region. We believe that we can really add value and help shape our fantastic industry. We make a superb product and yet, there are many English consumers out there who are still not familiar with the quality of English wine. I always really enjoy interacting with our consumers and seeing their enjoyment when they try Roebuck for the first time.
Is there any part that you dread doing?
I guess I would be lying if I said no! I don’t particularly enjoy the long drive to the vineyard from London on a Monday morning, particularly in the deepest, darkest winter. I did however read that it is always about re-framing things that you don’t enjoy – so now, I convince myself that it is great opportunity to spend the drive catching up on various podcasts.
I have also found navigating the process to secure planning permission for our new building challenging at times though, once we can deliver this, these challenges will all have been worthwhile.
What’s been your proudest moment since your involvement with the company?
There have been a lot of great moments. Launching the first wine in our new Rare Expressions range, which is a special collection of limited-edition vintage sparkling wines that showcase the finest expression of a particular place, grape variety or moment in time. Our Rare Expressions No.19 is the debut release in the range and a wonderful expression of a particular place – Block 19 at our Roman Villa vineyard in West Sussex. It is poured in the Mandarin Oriental for £39 per glass.
Being the first English sparkling wine to partner with the RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival last year is another highlight – particularly given that Roebuck outsold all Champagne and Prosecco from the previous year!
Last year we also won our first major listing in Norway - the largest export market for English wine - and we launched our wines in Japan, when I presented Roebuck to a group of sommeliers in the British Embassy in Tokyo. Bringing the team together to celebrate our successes, exciting plans for the future, and to enjoy ourselves is always a proud moment. At Christmas, we gathered together at Glide – the spectacular ice-skating rink at Battersea Power Station - where we were the exclusive sparkling wine partner, and that was pretty special.
What are you up against growing grapes in the UK versus Europe - is it just our poor weather? What’s the secret!
Whilst global warming has meant that we now have the temperature in the South of England to ripen fruit to the desired level to make fantastic sparkling wine, we can’t ignore that we are a maritime climate and therefore the weather is not always kind.
The vineyards are at the very heart of our business. We very much believe that quality starts in the vineyard and to produce an exceptional vintage every year we know we need to have to grow exceptional fruit every year. We have six vineyards which span West Sussex, East Sussex and into Kent and we break these into 82 different blocks which we manage on an individual basis. We vinify the fruit from each block separately - which means that we can have 70+ base wines when we come to blend.
It is this highly detailed approach that allows us to produce great wines every single year. Logistically it is a complex way to handle the vineyards, but ultimately it ensures we produce fantastic wine each year - and it is this approach which sets us apart in the industry.
What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
In a work context, two pieces of advice stick out - one from the Head Wine Buyer from my M&S days who told me that the answers are always in the numbers. This set me up to ensure I always take an analytical approach to problem solving.
The other from my time at Mars - hard on the problem, soft on the people! At the end of the day, in a business, it is the team that counts and not everything always goes to plan, so it is important to focus on the problem and how to harness a collective approach to solving it.
What would you say to your 16-year-old self?
Enjoy the ride - life is full of ups and downs, but trust that things will always work out in the end. Surround yourself with good people and work with good products, but make sure to have fun along the way. Also, make sure to keep fit!