meet the team
alina
Studied Geography at Plymouth University, where she and Tony first met. Her professional work meant travelling and working in many places throughout the UK and internationally, bringing with it extensive experience in business administration and event management and organisation, skills that have proved invaluable in establishing and running the farm and vineyard enterprise. And all augmented by studying the principles of vine growing at Plumpton College.
Her interests in the environmental sciences and horticulture led her to working with English Nature on the Joint Nature Conservation Committee. The JNCC works with government, business and society to increase awareness of the value of the natural environment, placing nature at the heart of sustainability and wellbeing – the very ethos that she and Tony have brought to Venn Valley Vineyard. As an advocate for sustainability and soil health she has immersed herself in working on the land and spending most of her time in the vineyard creating a place where viticulture and nature go hand-in-hand.
tony
A Chartered Mechanical Engineer, with a successful career in the oil and gas, water, marine, and Search and Rescue sectors – work that has taken him around the world.
He is especially proud of the time he spent working for the RNLI, first as Senior Engineer in the Engineering Department and then being instrumental in the development of the RNLI’s first Inshore Rescue Hovercraft, which is now an established part of the life-saving charity’s fleet. He fondly remembers being one of the RNLI team that took on TV Channel 4’s Full Metal Challenge (World Champions) and a Scrapheap Mega Challenge (Winning team).
After his extensive world-travelling career, it is North Devon and Venn Valley Vineyard that he now calls home, and where his many and varied skills are used on a daily basis, from constructing a 1560 sq.m free range egg production facility, designing and, in the near future, building a ‘Grand Designs’ style underground farmhouse, to fixing the farm machinery (when it inevitably breaks down!), to the loving care of the vines!
