Sparkling in Gateshead
ELISE’S URBAN WINERY OPENS
NEWCASTLE Brown Ale, The Bigg Market and Geordie Shore.
When people think of booze and Tyneside, these are what usually comes to mind.
But a mum-of-two is trying to do her bit to change those perceptions.
Elise Lane is opening the North East’s first urban winery.
But instead of making vino in sunsoaked French fields, she’s producing it in the middle of a Gateshead industrial estate.
And she’s bottling British wine, which she claims is as good as any.
“We get our grapes from Leicestershire and we bring them up to process here,” said the 38-year-old.
“There are some beautiful examples of sparkling wine which has won awards and even beaten Champagne.”
She’s hoping to soon bottle the Winery’s first batch - a whopping six thousand litres of white and rose.
Elise is expecting the “premium” product - priced at around £16 a bottle - to sell well.
There’s been some interest from major firms on the high street and pop-ups are planned down the line.
She’s aiming to get her firm located in Teams Valley trading estate - off the ground having left her job in London to return to the North East.
An Oxford University chemistry graduate, she took an interest in wine during her time at the prestigious school.
“While I was in my third year, I did the chemistry of wine,” she said.
“At that moment they brought out different wines and chemicals and smell them.
“It is basically the same stuff, not because wine is made of chemicals, but because everything is made of chemicals.
“Wine is probably the only fruit that has such a wide range of flavours and smells.”
However, the process of making wine is no longer spending hours crushing grapes with your feet.
“Our grapes come in 20kg batches, with the stalks removed and the machine crushes them,” she explains. “They are then pumped, with the juice draining and pumped into a tank.
“Once the draining is finished they are pressed again to get the extra juice, it settles for a day, before yeast is added and you just hope that it takes.”
Around 10 days later, there’s wine. But the whole process - from crushing to bottling - takes closer to three months.
Elise’s firm, Laneberg Wine Ltd, is seeking a licence from Gateshead Council to sell wine 24 hours a day - although that is only for online sales.
She’s also thrilled with the location, which while may not evoke images of vineyards, is “perfect” for what she has planned.
“At first we thought of places like the Ouseburn, but the cost put us off,” she said.
“It is cheap here, and if we had somewhere like the Grainger Market, it would be really difficult for getting lorries in and out.”
But does spending all day surrounded by wine not put Elise off the stuff?
“No,” she laughs. “I can imagine if you worked in somewhere like a chocolate factory, you may get sick of the smell. But wine isn’t like that.”