It all began with an idea - and an owl

Hanley is a boutique vineyard and winery positioned on the edge of the Teme Valley in a parish
called Hanley Childe in Worcestershire. Set up and run by Steve & Maria Smith, the estate is set in beautiful, idyllic
countryside on land that originally formed part of Kyre Park Estate.
After they married, Steve and Maria decided to return to Hanley Childe, Maria’s childhood home
and where her family have lived since the 1920s, where they set up a smallholding, both wanting
to do something from the land.
However, it was a trip to Portugal and in particular, a trip to a vineyard there that the idea of
making wine at home took hold. Steve was immediately taken by how the vineyard looked, and
as soon as they returned home, they both started finding out about everything they could about
viticulture.
The land they had wasn’t a typical site for vines, but both of them were convinced it was
something they had to try. While trying to choose the ideal location for their first planting, they
had a little help from above. Quite literally, actually. They noticed an owl who would regularly
swoop over a particular area. This helped persuade them of the position - both felt it was nature
showing them the way. The owl is still a regular visitor to this day, checking up on them and is
thanked for its help by featuring in the winery’s branding and on the wine labels.

Family of four standing in a vineyard

‘It’s certainly been an interesting journey to get where we are today.
We are continually exploring vineyard management, constantly
looking at different ways of doing things to get the best possible
wines. We try and do it all while being as environmentally friendly
as we can too, things like leaving headlands alone to encourage
wildlife to thrive is as important to us as everything else.
We don’t have any aspirations of ever working at a vast scale. You
see commercial wineries producing 10,000 bottles a year. We don’t
want that. We like that we’re small, it’s more personal. Now, we
can greet people ourselves who come to the winery. We can offer
employment to the local community and we can support local
artisans - something we’re very enthusiastic about.
We’re also incredibly enthusisatic about the wine we make, we’re
proud of each bottle and are very much looking forward to you
trying it.’

Our Viticulture

When they started Steve & Maria planted 500 vines, all individually, all by hand. And, to their
delight, the vines proved successful. Since then, they have planted a further 2500 in the same
way. As Maria says, ‘there’s nothing like planting a vineyard for putting down roots.’
Steve studied at Plumpton college - the UK’s centre of excellence for wine. And since then, he has
been responsible for all the wine made on the estate.
All the vines are pruned and harvested by hand, with all the trellising done by hand as well. They
also use as little chemicals in the vineyard as possible, spraying once a year for weeds - the rest
of the weeding and mowing is done by hand.