Our Story

Our ‘Family Robinson’ moved to Crossways Farm, North Creake in October 1989. Laura, Jack and Samantha were young children and enjoyed living by the coast with their parents. Producing traditional Norfolk crops of cereals, sugar beet and grazing sheep was the order of the day for many years.

Jack has been farming since leaving college and lives on the farm with his wife Natalie and their children, Archie and Ava.

Laura worked in Forensic Science for several years before meeting her partner Steve. Together they worked in Norway and Austria - chef Steve worked for high quality restaurants and outside catering companies. They returned to Norfolk in September 2013 to start a life with their new family and the arrival of twins, Molly and Max.

Laura and Steve also run Burn Valley Catering, an outside catering business – please see their website for details: www.burnvalleycatering.co.uk

Samantha has a passion for language and spent five years teaching English in Vietnam and Sardinia. Sam lives locally with her daughter, Maya.

In 2015, John decided to venture into the unknown and suggest the idea of the family Vineyard. The green light was given and research began in earnest. Laura passed an intensive vine-growing course at Plumpton College – the UK wine research centre. Laura and Samantha have both passed WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) Levels 1 & 2 and Laura has just completed WSET Level 3.

Our Winemaker at Burn Valley is Mathew Abbey. Matt joined us in 2019 at the first winery opening party and has been working in the wine industry for over 17 years. He first got into wine in the UK working wine retail with Adnams where he also studied WSET level 2 & 3 before moving to New Zealand. Over there he spent over 10 years working in Marlborough, Central Otago & Hawkes Bay from winemaking, viticulture, Sales & Marketing to labelling and bottling and even wine tours/tourism.

Mathew has made several award winning wines with Burn Valley and loves to experiment with each vintage.

The Site and Soil

Burn Valley Vineyard is south facing, and we are situated four miles from the North Norfolk coast - an area of outstanding natural beauty. The soil is free draining and flinty with a chalk base. We keep the vineyard grass-free and utilise the natural stony ground to aid ripening of the grapes. The stones retain the heat from the day and provide extra warmth for the vines during the chilly nights.