Vineyard couple back home

For Peter and Christine Hall, of Breaky Bottom Vineyard, near Rodmell, the move couldn't come at a better time.

Neither can face a third winter in their caravan in the Downland valley which can be freezing in the bleak winter.

Peter, who has been at Breaky Bottom for 35 years, 28 of them running a vineyard, is no stranger to floods, having suffered them in 1972, 1976, 1982 and 1987.

But the events of October 12, 2000, and the next six months were as near to a crippling disaster as it is possible to get.

The couple fled with the bare necessities on October 12.

And then floods of silt from the upper hills came down into the farmstead 19 more times up to January, 2001.

After that Peter and Christine managed to get makeshift flood walls around the house and 11 more inundations up to the following April at least did not damage the house.

But foot-and-mouth followed, holding up renovation work on their home. And then there was the usual slow pace of sorting insurance issues.

Peter suffered pneumonia last winter through living in the cold caravan.

But all the time he has kept producing wine.

Last year was a brilliant vintage described by the Guardian as a classic 'brimming with pungent grapefruit freshness which will, if you store it, slowly melt toward creamy depth with the years'.

This year the news has not been so good. There was difficult weather during flowering and then a plague of snails as the flowers were beginning to set.

'It can happen anywhere,' said a sanguine Peter. 'We lost the crop this year. It is all part and parcel of having a vineyard.

'But we are still selling our wines of 1991 and 1992 and onwards. It's swings and roundabouts. We won a gold medal in the 1993 International Wine Challenge with blind tasting a terrific achievement.'

Getting out of the caravan in the garden and into the Hall's much more comfortable home is a major achievement.

Now the couple can get their property out of storage and have a proper bath.

'We are too exhausted to party,' said Peter. 'It's just bloody good to be home and thanks to all, including Harveys Brewery, who have been so supportive in many ways.'