I’M KEEPING MY LATE HUSBAND’S DREAM ALIVE

JANE CLARK, 59, is widowed with three sons in their 20s. She mentors young artists and is founder of an exhibition held every two years. She says:

FOR more than 30 years, my late husband, Matthew, had grown wheat, barley and oats on our arable farm. In April last year he also planted 6,000 vines across six acres as a hobby, but with aspirations of one day producing wine. After he died suddenly last December aged 58, I vowed that, although it would be hard work and I know nothing about wine-growing, I would do all I could to make it a success, supported by our three sons, who work in law, property and insurance. And so, unwittingly, it has become my all-consuming hobby. It started seven years ago when Matthew planted seven vines in our garden. Then, in September 2018, we went on a cycling wine tour of Burgundy, which made up his mind. Back home, off he went to do an intensive vine-growing course having identified a slope on the farm that he thought would be perfect.

We bought 6,000 vines from Germany costing €13,000 and hired a team to help us plant them last spring.

There are six different grapes that will hopefully produce rosé, red, white, sparkling and, unusually, pudding wine, which I enjoy drinking and wanted Matthew to grow.

Now I’m winging it, learning what to do with the vines day by day by poring over Matthew’s textbooks and notes.

The vines were little stumps when we got them but are around 3ft now and, excitingly, some now bear small bunches of grapes.

They are the most wonderful way of ensuring the boys and I look forward and turn our grief into something positive.

Matthew would have been thrilled. I can almost see his shadow in the vineyard and picture him standing there telling us what to do. My sons and I have a saying: ‘If we get stuck, think, “What would Dad do?”

Although it will be a few years before we harvest our first vintage, each vine should produce around five bottles.

I plan to name the wines Carnelian & Clark, in a nod to our surname and the bright orange carnelian stones Matthew loved to collect on the beaches nearby where we spent many happy times as a family.

I can’t wait until the day when we can raise a glass in his memory.