America Brewer - Owner and Winemaker
Oastbrook Estate was established in 2017 by America and Nick Brewer in Bodiam, East Sussex and the vineyard nestles into the banks of the Rother Valley, that winds its way through East Sussex. Sitting on a sandstone ridge covered by clay, sand and silt, the soils give a richness and exuberance to the the wines made by the estate. America is a native of Bahia, Brazil and she has fond memories of eating grapes from the vines growing up the side of the family home , whilst Nick was spending student summers working in Burgundy. Having spent their lives working in South America, Africa, Europe and Asia developing a passion for wine and touring vineyards around the world they returned to the UK in 2013 to set up life on the farm. Having attended Plumpton College they began to plant the vineyard. In 2020 they won best still wine in competition at the IEWA awards, adding to previous awards from WineGB, the Champagne International Awards and the Sommelier Wine Awards.
America's first passion is for sustainable viticulture and winemaking and is a firm believer that great wines require great grapes. She uses a minimum intervention regime with integrated pest management and a diversified cover crop to maintain soil health. That focus on delivering grape quality shows in the wines which are distinguished by exuberant fruit. Both winemakers agree that they are shepherding the grapes to true expression through the wine. The couple acknowledge that they don't always agree on the winemaking path but the creative tension has led to some stand out wines. They make some individual batches but they don't tell anyone who made which batch, but you can be sure that they keep a personal tally of the critics comments but both the vineyard and the wine making are a team effort. As Nick says "all I'm trying to do is put America's character into a bottle". The couple have decided to focus on producing smaller batches which in America words " Means that we can really allow the grapes to see their full expression in the wines". She adds, "We are very competitive with each other but we both agree on our focus on quality"