WHEN Michael Roberts stumbled upon the rare opportunity to buy a vineyard, he said he just had to take it.

The London-based businessman was seduced by the charms of Constable Country – not least because the Stour valley seemed a perfect, sunny location for a vineyard.

Two years after taking on the former Carters Vineyard, in Green Lane, Boxted, Mr Roberts has announced £500,000 plans to expand the 25-year-old enterprise.

The co-owner of what is now known as Dedham Vale Vineyard said: “It was for sale and because I had been here before, I just knew it was such a lovely place.

“It is very rare you get the opportunity to buy a really lovely place which comes with an interesting thing such as a vineyard.”

Mr Roberts, a Cambridgetrained scientist, and business partner Jan Wilson, snapped up the 40-acre vineyard from local landowner Bunting and Sons for £500,000, before the company went into administration.

The Buntings’ ambitious and controversial plans to create the Horkesley Park heritage centre in the valley would later fall through, taking the company with them.

Mr Roberts said: “This was Bunting and Co trying to raise some capital. It takes you two minutes to see four acres of vines is not a business and you can really do a lot with it.

“It’s too small, so it would have to become bigger. Because there is the land to expand, we have room for expansion.

"I also saw it as a medium-term thing and I can get more and more involved.

"I can manage it from being on the site. It is a really nice, pleasant business venture. What could be better than working with wine?”

Mr Roberts’ plans for the site include building himself a luxurous new modern home from which he would manage the vineyard.

A planning application has been submitted to Colchester Council and is awaiting councillors’ attention after next month’s elections.

In fact, the vineyard already has permission for an estate manager’s house, but Mr Roberts felt it would have been in the wrong place. Furthermore, he says he wants the smart, hi-tech new home to be “a brand statement”

for the vineyard.

The three-bedroom house would be in a more secluded location, making it less visible from the nearby valley, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The new house would have a garage, a workshop and an equipment store for woodland management on the site.

It would also have what is described is “a cave” in the basement, a place where wines could be kept and matured and stocks built up in case the vineyard has a year when the British weather let it down.

The house would also be very eco-friendly, reflecting Mr Roberts’ background, as chairman of BioWatt, the specialist composting and bio-gas company he co-founded three years ago.

His architect, Purcell, is noted for its work in designing buildings of significant architectural merit, using low-energy materials as much as possible.

The walls would be made from a low-carbon building material, lime hemp panels, while part of the roof would include a heat pump system and possibly, solar panels.

Mr Roberts says the building would be “a passivhaus”, based on extremely high energy efficiency.

Out in the vineyard, he plans to double the amount of wine it produces – about ten acres of the site is suitable for growing vines, but only half is currently in use.

Mr Roberts said: “We won’t plant them all in one go.

“Depending on the seeding, we will plant a third of that every year for the next three years.”

The plan is to continue to produce sparkling and still varieties, white, and red and rose.

Last year, the vines yielded 24,000 bottles and Mr Roberts hopes this year that could rise to many as 30,000, creating more jobs in the process.

However Mr Roberts’ vineyard vision doesn’t end there.

He explained: “Because we are in an east-west valley, meaning the north and south sides are sloping, it is the ideal place for vines to be cultivated.

“It would be lovely, over the years, to see this become Essex’s real wine-producing valley.

“We are happy to talk to people who think theymight like to have a vineyard managed for them.

“It has enthused me. There are bound to be other people who might feel they’d like to have a vineyard in the area without managing it themselves.”

The original vineyard was founded by Mary Mudd, who still lives nearby and regularly calls in to taste the latest wines.

Mrs Mudd had owned the site for 15 years, and when she started out, had little idea which varieties of grape might prosper.

With a smile, Mr Roberts says: “It turns out they all did. I’m just a custodian.”