Why is Verjuice Sustainable?

Zero waste product + low intervention farming + sustainable packaging

Our verjuice is a sustainable choice compared to traditional wine and other verjuice options due to our commitment to minimising waste, practising low-intervention farming, and using eco-friendly packaging.

Read on below to learn how we're able to achieve this and create a delicious product, whilst working with and for the environment we operate in...

  • Minimising Waste Product

  • Verjuice is made by picking unripe grapes. Unfortunately, these grapes are normally a waste product in every other vineyard. However, our vineyard at Westmeston Estate was planted to produce high quality grapes which 100% of which can used in the production of English Sparkling wine.


    Traditionally, to achieve the best grapes, it is common practice by wine producers to ‘Green Harvest’,. This means picking the smaller and weaker bunches at, or before Veraison (the time when the grapes are starting to mature, turning from green to red, when their acid levels are at an optimum and the sugar levels are still low).


    Pruning the grapes at this stage for wine production enables the vine to put its energy into the remaining grapes and bunches. The green harvest is cut and dropped onto the ground and eventually mulched into the surrounding soil.

    What a waste!

    All that effort, water, resource and expense of growing grapes, only to drop them on the ground which in turn also makes the surrounding soil more acidic over time.

    Surely, we could do something with this ‘waste’ product?

    Low and behold, there was Verjus (or Verjuice), which has actually been around for centuries. There are reports that the Romans struggled to grow grapes in England, so they created Verjuice as a replacement for lemons, limes and wine vinegars. According to historians, even mustard was originally made using verjuice as opposed to wine vinegar and some people still make it that way. Give it a try.

    From the early days of picking a small green harvest, trialling varietal, white and red Verjuice, we elected to produce a blended version with both our own grapes which have been specifically grown for our delicious Verjuice, but also with the green and unripe harvests from our neighbours in Southern England, that would otherwise be considering 'waste product'.

    After a few years of trial and error, our entire harvest of Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes go into the production of the first and only English Verjuice.

  • Our Non-Intervention Farming Practices

  • The ecological benefits don’t end with minimising wasted grapes...

    As grape farmers and lovers of nature our aim has always been low intervention. While we're are not 100% organic, we strive to get as close as you can get, whilst still producing delicious product.


    We do spray our vines to prevent disease and fungus that can decimate a vintage, but we limit what we spray and only use Bio-Fungicides. These are natural funguses that eat other funguses and then dissipate. We don’t use pesticides; our precious bees certainly wouldn't like that!


    Picking grapes early has other major advantages.

    Birds and insects don’t like unripe grapes as much, and the majestic deer that live on the farm tend to ignore the fruit and concentrate on the vine leaves instead.

    For the other small vineyards that we buy fruit from, it provides those local farmers an additional income from what would usually be a waste product for them. Win, win!

    When harvest is finished, our flock of Swiss Valais, South Down and Kerry Hills sheep are left to eat the grass and wildflowers in the vineyard, naturally fertilising as they go.

    We are located within the Southdown National Park; surrounded by luscious wildlife. We are so fortunate to live and farm the environment we live in and relish in the excitement and experience of the nature we see and interact with daily.

    Our sustainability and low intervention methods do not end at the farm gate. The grapes are pressed on site on the farm, just a stone’s throw form the vineyard. Then any waste product, pulp grape skins, seeds and stalks from this pressing process are all collected up for the biodigester, ready to be used as fertiliser on next year's crop.

  • Our Sustainable Packaging

  • Even our sustainable packaging is designed to be reused and recyclable...

    We use glass bottles with metallic tops and paper-based labels to house the delightful verjuice.


    We then package up each order by hand with recycled cardboard postal boxes, wrapping the bottles in protective starch-based filler and sealing with paper tape.


    All of these initiatives are designed to give us customers peace of mind that while they are enjoying a delicious, locally-sourced product, they are also doing their bit to protect and support the delicate environment we and our families all live in.

Browse our delicious and sustainable Verjuice products...

Enhance your food and cocktails, whilst supporting local English famers and the beautiful natural landscape. Buy Verjuice today!