Working in collaboration with clients and their architect Powlett & Associates successfully developed a business plan to support the application for rural development funds for the conversion of a grade 2 listed redundant agricultural barn to a modern day 21st Century Cellar Door.
The client, an award-winning producer of wines from his Essex Vineyard, identified that in order to capitalise on the sales of wine it is more profitable to sell from the Cellar Door- i.e. on site . The Cellar Door also enables customers and purveyors of fine wine to visit the vineyard, the local countryside and taste its produce.
The application was a success and the startling conversion completed in spring 2019. The Cellar Door regularly hosts wine tasting events, jazz events and weddings. The business works in co-operation with other local Vineyards to promote an Essex Trail of Vines and Wines and is an important paert of the local tourism offer within north Essex.