Barons Place Vineyard
Barons Place Vineyard is the wine-grape vineyard that sits within Hugh Lowe Farms, a fifth-generation family farming business headquartered at Barons Place in the village of Mereworth, in the heart of the Kent countryside. While Hugh Lowe Farms is best known across Britain for its strawberries, raspberries and blackberries (it has, for more than twenty-five years, been the sole supplier of strawberries to the Wimbledon Championships), the farm has more recently extended its crop portfolio to include a still-young vineyard whose grapes go on to become some of England's most celebrated sparkling wines.
The Farm Behind the Vines
Hugh Lowe Farms is based in the village of Mereworth, Kent, on the Seven Mile Lane (B2016), close to both the M25 and M26 motorways. The nearest mainline railway stations are West Malling and Borough Green, both with direct services from London Victoria. The farm office at Barons Place carries the address Farm Office, Barons Place, Mereworth, Maidstone, Kent ME18 5NF, and the broader group also operates a packhouse on Seven Mile Lane (ME18 5NE) and a glasshouse site at Ashes Lane, Hadlow (TN11 0AN).
The business is led today by Managing Director Marion Regan, with her husband Jon Regan serving as Chairman. The current owners are only the third generation to run the farm since its founding in 1893 by Bernard Champion, who arrived in Mereworth with the ambition of becoming a leading fruit grower. Wild strawberries flourishing in the local woods prompted him to plant his first crop that year, supplying fruit to the family stall in Covent Garden run by his older brothers. Champion's grandson Hugh Lowe took over in 1955, and the present ownership passed to Marion Regan, who now runs the farm with Jon.
Around 125 years of growing experience is woven into the operation. The group farms more than 1,300 hectares in total across the Weald of Kent, encompassing soft fruit, leafy salad production through the sister business L J Betts Ltd, plant propagation at Blaise Plants, an arable operation, and the young Barons Place vineyard.
The Vineyard at Barons Place
The directors describe a host of recent investments, including "new training rooms, accommodation, new glasshouse and planting our first Vineyard." It is therefore a young site, part of a broader strategy of diversification that pairs the long-established berry enterprise with new crop enterprises, alongside the farm's existing arable rotation of grains, beans and oilseeds.
On its south-facing chalky slopes, the vineyard glows in the autumn as the land stays warm enough to mature the wine grapes. These go on to produce the renowned Chapel Down vintages of English sparkling wine. Jon Regan is Chairman of the wider group, and the vineyard is a strategically important part of the farm's premium-market ambitions rather than a hobby planting.
Why Mereworth Suits Wine Grapes
The Kent Weald has, over the past two decades, become one of the most exciting regions in England for still and sparkling wine production, and the conditions at Barons Place reflect exactly why. The site enjoys south-facing slopes that capture sunlight through the day and release stored heat back into the canopy during the cooler evenings of late summer and early autumn. Beneath the vines, the same chalk-influenced soils that characterise much of the North Downs and the wider Kent landscape provide the free-draining foundation that classic Champagne varieties (Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier) thrive on.
Because the slopes stay warm long enough to mature the wine grapes, the vineyard is well placed to ripen fruit consistently in a British climate, a non-trivial achievement given that English vintages are notoriously variable from year to year. By selling the fruit to Chapel Down, one of the country's best-known and most-awarded producers of English sparkling wine, the farm entrusts its crop to a winery with the scale, expertise and cellar resources to turn Kentish fruit into a finished bottle.
How the Vineyard Fits with the Wider Farm
Barons Place sits within a deliberately mixed farming landscape. The farm applies a "sharing and sparing" land-use philosophy: only about one-third of the holding grows commercial crops such as berries, salads or vines, with the remainder split between arable production (grains, beans and oilseeds) and dedicated land for wildlife, including meadows, woodland, hedgerows, field margins, and specialist environmental seed and flower mixes.
That philosophy is helpful in viticulture as much as in soft fruit. The farm is an original member of LEAF (Linking Environment and Farming) and uses the LEAF Marque to certify its environmental practices. It holds management plans for water, waste, energy, soils, crop protection, biodiversity and landscape, and is certified under Red Tractor assurance. The same pollinator-friendly and biodiversity measures that support strawberry and raspberry production (native beneficial insects, wildflower field margins, dozens of beehives tended on the farm, and native bumblebee hives introduced for the colder months) work just as effectively in and around the vineyard.
Sustainability and Soil
Hugh Lowe Farms has pledged to bring its greenhouse gas emissions to Net Zero, switching to renewable energy sources and increasing the natural carbon stored in its soils, trees and hedges. All plastic waste is recycled, the punnets used for berries are made from recycled PET, and tunnel covers are used for several crops before being recycled into other products. The arable team at the farm has begun adopting regenerative farming principles, which complement the long-term horizon of vineyard establishment.
Looking after the land is not framed as a CSR exercise but as straightforward business sense: "Whether investing in renewable energy, water conservation, or protecting biodiversity, it all improves the bottom line." For a vineyard that will only begin to express itself fully over decades, that long view is built into the soil management.
The People Behind the Project
The wider group of family-owned horticultural businesses describes itself as "a 5th generation family run group of business. Hugh Lowe Farms grows strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, L J Betts Ltd grows leafy salad crops, Blaise Plants propagates soft fruit plants, we also have arable crops and a vineyard. In total we farm over 1300ha."
Director Tom Pearson oversees production across the group, while Charlotte Hudson manages the arable side. Marion Regan leads the company as Managing Director with Jon Regan as Chairman. Ana Yordanova runs recruitment coordination for seasonal staff, with separate HR contacts including Zane Paberza and Ligita Nociute supporting the seasonal workforce at peak harvest.
The farm also runs a structured Two-Year Graduate Programme that rotates new entrants through every part of the business, from growing, harvesting and packing through to general farm work, machinery operation and people management, with an optional season at the group's berry business in Tasmania, Australia. For a young vineyard, that depth of in-house horticultural expertise is a significant asset.
Visiting and Contacting Barons Place Vineyard
As the vineyard is part of a working commercial farm rather than a visitor destination, public tours, tastings and cellar-door sales are not currently offered. The site is, however, straightforward to reach: the farm office is at Barons Place, Mereworth, Maidstone, Kent ME18 5NF, just off the B2016, and West Malling railway station is the nearest mainline stop.
General enquiries about the farm and the vineyard can be directed to info@hlf.co.uk, while recruitment is handled at jobs@hlf.co.uk. The main farm office can be reached by phone on +44 (0) 1622 812229, the packhouse on +44 (0) 1622 813493, and door sales on +44 (0) 1622 817868.
The wider farm is active on Facebook, Instagram and X (Twitter).
A Young Vineyard in a Famous County for English Wine
Although Barons Place Vineyard is at an early stage of its life and the farm does not yet release a wine under its own label, its chosen route to market (supplying fruit to Chapel Down, one of the most decorated producers of English sparkling wine) places it firmly within the wider renaissance of Kentish and English wine. The combination of south-facing chalky slopes, careful variety selection and the farm's deep expertise in substrate growing, irrigation and crop husbandry suggests that the Barons Place vineyard is set to become an increasingly important contributor to the county's sparkling wine story in the years ahead.