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Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Somerset's coolest new farm stay with its own private vineyard
It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment I decided I wouldn't mind staying in this patch of southwest Somerset for the rest of time. I suppose it could have been during my Sunday-morning lakeside massage. Specifically when gazing out through the door of the tumbledown boating shed-turned-treatment room at the reeds swaying in the summer breeze and realising the choral birdsong soundtrack wasn't being piped through the portable speakers but coming live and direct from the trees outside. Or perhaps it was the previous day, on a grassy slope amid apple orchards, surrounded by local families and their dogs, as a dinky Glastonbury-style knees-up unfolded around us featuring acrobats and pints of homebrew. Actually, I think it was back at our farmstay watching our host, Panu Long, point out ancient-looking pagan symbols scratched into the walls of the barn where his hulking 150-year-old cider press and shiny new silver fermentation vats reside. Cider has long been a big deal in these parts, but Panu and his wife, Sophie Brendel, are just as serious about bringing wine here as climate change starts to see southern England give France's Champagne region a run for its money. The couple and their two children moved to this 40-acre farmstead, four miles east of Taunton in the gaze of the Quantock and Blackdown Hills, in 2022 (and have since acquired a labrador, kitten, Legbar chickens and a cote of doves). The following year they began planting vineyards and have since rechristened it Thornfalcon Winery & Press. But while production of their wine range is still a work in progress (it takes three to four years from planting before the grapes can be used), their hospitality is already well underway. We spent two nights in the Coach House, a barn conversion dominated by beautiful timber frames and a vast open-plan living/kitchen area with a creaking dining table at its heart. Flagstone floors lead to the children's twin room, an adorable Enid Blyton-style den decked out in folk wallpaper, stripy blinds, checked bedspreads and patterned quilts. Then we duck into the mezzanine master bedroom for more arts and crafts-inspired interiors. A welcome hamper in the kitchen is loaded with goodies from the farmhouse gardens (eggs, lettuces, carrots, asparagus, broadbeans, rhubarb…), plus local cheeses, jams and bread. The first night we arrive late to find a fish pie in the oven courtesy of Sophie, and Panu knocking on the door with a tray of Thornfalcon house martinis. Before they upped sticks Sophie worked as marketing, digital and commercial director for the Victoria and Albert Museum, where her love of fabrics and interiors was ignited, while Panu was in drinks, overseeing the bars at big-ticket events such as the Baftas and Elton John's White Tie and Tiara Ball. • Discover our full guide to Somerset Outside in the Coach House paddock stands their latest pride and joy: a traditional vardo Gypsy caravan. The plan is for it to be wheeled to any of Thornfalcon's three guest stays as a portable extra children's bedroom. There's also the Vine Hut — a roomy shepherd's hut with an outdoor copper bath and fire pit overlooking the vineyard — and the Lambing Shed, a more isolated retreat hidden away in the orchards with a wood-fire garden bath. Both sleep two, have kitchens, log-burning stoves, (indoor!) showers and look like giant doll's houses, such is the attention to detail across every last inch. • 13 of the best luxury hotels in Somerset The next morning the pair take us on a tour past their handsome 250-year-old thatched farmhouse and up a lush track to the lake. Normally they would be encouraging us to swim in it, but it is out of bounds while the resident nesters, Mr and Mrs Swan, hatch their cygnets. Then it's on to the vineyards, where Panu shows us the fledgling chardonnay, pinot noir and meunier grapes that will be made into their sparkling wine, and his innovative deterrent for hungry deer: a movement-triggered speaker system that blasts Radio 4 across the hillside. A discussion about the UK-EU youth mobility scheme on The Week in Westminster was certainly enough to move me on quickly. Future plans include converting an outbuilding into an events space for supper clubs and corporate getaways, plus Sophie's long-term dream of turning the stables into music studios for more creative escapes (they have already hosted their first writers' retreat). Panu has further drink-related ambitions too; he has already planted more vineyards with hardier, hybrid grape varieties and is busy perfecting his 'keeved' cider — a naturally carbonated delicacy, sold in champagne-like bottles, which should be ready this autumn. That afternoon we're packed off to the nearby Burrow Hill Farm for Cider Bus Saturday, a local tradition that started during the pandemic when groups could only meet outside ( It's hosted by the illustrious cider-making Temperley family, who have owned Burrow Hill since the 1960s, and whose blue double-decker Somerset Cider Bus will be a familiar sight to anyone who has been to Glastonbury Festival. Most other summer weekends it's the centrepiece for this small local shindig that also features a pop-up food stall and some sort of family-friendly music performance or circus act hidden down an orchard track. Today we get pizza and an all-female troupe of tightrope walkers called Daughters of the Dust. A little onsite shop also sells Mary Temperley's homeware and toiletries. It's impossible to visit Burrow Hill without someone mentioning Mary's sister and the most famous family member of all: Alice Temperley, whose eponymous fashion emporium relocated from London to nearby Ilminster a few years ago. Now housed in the Victorian former magistrate's court, it's an Aladdin's cave of bohemian fabulousness and well worth a visit, particularly because of its outlet store prices. I screech in just as it's closing but still manage to walk out with most of a new summer wardrobe. Back at Thornfalcon, the traditional wood-burning hot tub and sauna have been fired up, ready for us to pile in. They're on the banks of the lake, overlooking a beached fishing boat, the nesting swans and setting sun beyond. Sophie arrives carrying a white-label prototype of Thornfalcon fizz and my family wonder why we don't just move to Somerset to start a vineyard too. The next morning the kids help collect eggs from the henhouse, I have my life-affirming massage and we bid Thornfalcon an emotional farewell as Sophie delivers one last delight: she has booked us Sunday lunch at the Lord Poulett Arms in Hinton St George — a film set-ready 17th-century inn with the best roasts in the vicinity (mains from £20, B&B doubles from £120; But crucially, it's also off the A303 on the way back home to London, otherwise I'm not sure she'd have ever convinced us to leave. Krissi Murison was a guest of Thornfalcon, which has B&B doubles from £125 ( By Siobhan Grogan The market town of Ilminster is a 15-minute drive from Thornfalcon and has a 15th-century church, a popular theatre, and plenty of independent cafés and shops for pottering around. Half an hour further from there, higgledy-piggledy Bruton is (famously) well worth the day trip for its terraced streets, acclaimed Godminster cheese shop and art gallery Hauser & Wirth in a former farmstead with a stunning landscaped garden (free; Get another art fix at Close Gallery, which showcases contemporary works, in the grounds of Close House in Hatch Beauchamp (free; The Quantock Hills were England's first Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and are the best place for hiking and cycling with their windswept heathland, wildlife sightings and stretches of wilderness. Rocky ridge Haddon Hill is another good option for a countryside ramble, with lunch afterwards at the modern fine-dining restaurant Holm in South Petherton — it's full of clever ideas such as Westcombe cheddar fries with asparagus or chocolate crémeux with Jerusalem artichoke ice cream (mains from £23; Afterwards stroll around the village, which has a church with an octagonal central tower with 12 bells and a performing arts centre, the David Hall ( There's history galore at the 50-acre 16th-century Hestercombe Gardens (£17; the Jacobean almshouses of Taunton and Castle Neroche, an Iron Age hillfort. The National Trust's Tudor mansion Barrington Court also has gardens, a café and independent artisan studios for shopping (£12 or free for National Trust members; The award-winning gastropub the Barrington Boar is nearby and recently opened a new bakery in the converted cider barn next door (mains from £23;
The Guardian
11-06-2025
- The Guardian
Down on the farm: a summer cabin stay on the Somerset Levels
In Old English its name meant 'the land of the summer people', after the local practice of coming down to the Somerset Levels after the winter flooding receded. Today, Somerset is still somewhere where seasons are felt vividly, as Sophie Brendal and Panu Long discovered when they and their two children moved to Thornfalcon, their farmstead in a village of the same name, 15 minutes' drive from Taunton, at the end of 2022. Here, they are on constant weather watch, tending their young vines (Panu, now a winemaker, has a background in the drinks industry) and harvesting daily from the kitchen garden. They are also busy making plans for the apple harvest, which will go into the 150-year-old cider press. In addition, they have created a handful of places to stay on their 16-hectare (40-acre) site, which sprawls through woods, orchards and vines to a reed-fringed lake. Walking around it at the end of May, you feel the cusp of summer, from the water lilies coming into bloom and the nesting swan, guarded by her mate. 'Soon the eggs will hatch, and later she'll teach the cygnets to fly, before taking them down to the Somerset Levels,' says Sophie. My cabin, the Vine Hut, is surrounded by wildflowers overlooking rows of champagne grape varieties. Inside, nature is just as enveloping: nasturtiums climb over the bedroom wallpaper, a blousy bunch of homegrown peonies sits on the dining table. Behind the orchard, the Lambing Shed's interior is clad in textured band-sawn planks and the bed's headboard is painted with apple blossom. In front of the family's blue lias stone farmhouse is the two-bedroom Coach House, filled with antiques and beautiful textiles, which hint at Sophie's years spent among pattern and design as a director at the V&A. The latest arrival is a vardo Gypsy wagon with floral patterned ceiling, which sleeps two children as extra accommodation for families staying in the cabins. As the sun creeps out, I wander back to the lake, Mr Swan still patrolling in case I had a mind for a dip. Instead I sit in the wooden sauna – the big picture window frames the scene as swifts dip, and the mental ticker tape of to-do lists begins to melt away. There's a hot tub outside too, and nearby an old boat house has been turned into the wild treatment room, where local therapist Gemma undoes some of the rest of my knots as the bird calls carry in off the water. Both cabins have outdoor baths of their own, although the plum spot at the Vine Hut after dinner is a pair of adirondack chairs, positioned just so to catch the sunset. The next morning, in the sunny, green-painted kitchen, I make breakfast with blue-shelled eggs from the brood of Legbar chickens. There's the option to have a box of just-picked Thornfalcon produce in your cabin on arrival, or Sophie and Panu are full of recommendations for eating nearby, from roasts at the Dinnington Docks to something smarter at the Barrington Boar. Afterwards, I take the short stomp through the village and up Thorn Hill (known as 'the clump' for its wooden top), where baby bunnies dart from hedgerows. A patchwork of green rolls away to the edge of the Quantock Hills. There are other walks from the door, looping round through the village of North Curry – where you can pick up a duck sausage roll at the Bird in Hand pub, which is in the process of reopening and is currently serving pints and street food from a converted wagon outside. Slightly farther away, you can strike out around Cothelstone Hill to spot the herd of Exmoor ponies and bronze age burial mounds, or rent paddle boards from the Somerset Boat Centre to float along the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal. A current of creativity also flows through this corner of Somerset, and later that morning I meet Buc Dennis at his family's Dennis Chinaworks in an old stable block outside Shepton Beauchamp (open Monday to Friday, and weekends by appointment). Visitors can buy beautiful vases and jugs, with patterns hand drawn by Buc's mother, Sally Tuffin, a former fashion designer now in her 80s. It's not the only creative family hub in these parts, and afterwards I swing by the Temperleys' Burrow Hill Cider Farm. The familiar Glastonbury cider bus is parked outside, the pumps fired up on Saturday afternoons, when local families spread picnic blankets between the apple trees, entertained by food trucks and circus troupes. Across the yard, Mary Temperley's Make store is stocked with zesty body washes (also in bathrooms at Thornfalcon), baskets woven in Ghana and suzanis stitched in Jaipur. Sign up to The Traveller Get travel inspiration, featured trips and local tips for your next break, as well as the latest deals from Guardian Holidays after newsletter promotion Sophie and Panu, too, fizz with ideas. 'When I developed long Covid, creativity and making were one of the key things that made me well again,' Sophie told me when pointing out a framed needlepoint she had stitched in one of the cabins. This summer, the first bottles of wine and cider will be ready; there are plans to take beekeeping courses and plant lavender fields; and to host feasts, yoga classes and painting workshops in a lovely old barn. It's inspiring to be around, and equally, easy to dip into as much or as little as you choose. A place to get fired up or sink into a slower way of living, or, as I tried, to find a balance between the two. Accommodation was provided by Thornfalcon Winery & Press: the Coach House sleeps five from £125 a night; the Vine Hut and the Lambing Shed sleep two from £170 a night, and the Gypsy Caravan an extra £70 a night (all two nights minimum), Train travel was provided by Great Western Railway, which travels directly from London Paddington to Taunton,
Business Mayor
26-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Business Mayor
The magic and madness of leaving London to start a vineyard in Somerset
How many of us dream of leaving the city, leaving our jobs, getting away from it all to do something more rural, more romantic — something like running a vineyard? In 2022, communication executive Sophie Brendel and her husband Panu Long, an event manager and drinks consultant, did just that. They upped sticks from London and moved to a 250-year-old Somerset farmstead, following their pipe dream of making their own organic cider and wine. Neither of them had farmed before. For some, the prospect would be terrifying. Brendel, however, goes with 'exhilarating'. 'There are lots of things we worry about,' admits Long of their burgeoning endeavour, launching this spring as Thornfalcon Winery and Press. Should a freak frost occur, for example, the couple are poised to run out at midnight and distribute lit paraffin candles, raising the temperature between the vines. More likely is a period of drought; they have on-site weather stations linked to five satellites, and irrigation from their on-site bore hole. Or deer cropping the vine shoots and destroying the growth; alarms are set up to scare them off with flashing lights — and BBC Radio 4 (deer don't like the sound of the human voice). It's easy to see why the couple were enamoured with the 40-acre property, though. In the village of Thornfalcon, between Taunton and Ilminster in south-west Somerset, the location is magnificent, with views across to the Blackdown and Quantock Hills. The farmhouse of blue lias (a local limestone) is flanked by wild-flower meadows, woodlands, a 2-acre swimming lake with swans and otters, and a further 30 acres of farmable land. There are two mature apple orchards, while the aspect and loamy soil of the fields provides a fertile bed for growing grapes. As climate change starts to make conditions in France's Champagne region unstable, the UK is becoming a beguiling terroir. Brendel and her husband Panu Long at the 40-acre property, which has wild-flower meadows, woodlands and apple orchards The house is built of blue lias, a local limestone, and has views to the Blackdown and Quantock Hills 'There's an extra level of pressure in that Thornfalcon is also our home,' says Brendel, who at 6ft in wellies and a denim dress, is brimful of energy and plans. 'We're all in.' Aptly, the couple met by the cider tent at Standon Calling festival in Hertfordshire. Neither was particularly green-fingered. Long's job shaking cocktails at the Met Bar (in its just-launched glory days in the late 1990s) evolved into a career running drinks at international events, such as the Baftas and Elton John's White Tie & Tiara Ball. At 6ft 5in, he is taller still than Brendel and, in contrast to her electricity, has a more laid-back charisma. Brendel, meanwhile, had gone from head of digital communications at the BBC to director of marketing and communications at the Victoria and Albert Museum. 'We spent our holidays exploring European vineyards and the cider orchards of Normandy,' says Brendel. 'We dreamt of setting up something of our own.' When the pandemic hit and the event world ground to a halt, Long took the opportunity to reskill with vine-growing and winemaking courses (he's still studying for his WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust) diploma. Brendel continued as the nexus of the V&A's strategy as it expanded into a family of museums — until she contracted long Covid. She returned to her childhood home in Dorset, close to where Long grew up, and was bedbound for months. Long started out as a mixologist, becoming a drinks consultant and events manager, but is now reskilling in cider- and winemaking 'I found being in nature calming, centring,' says Brendel. They started the property hunt. But a year of looking in Dorset proved fruitless. Then their old friend, the fashion designer Alice Temperley, invited them to stay in her Somerset home, close to where her father makes the award-winning Burrow Hill Cider. 'It was the first of their Cider Bus Saturdays,' recalls Brendel of the now regular events. 'There were acrobats in the fields and a band; it was so bohemian and wonderful.' The next week the property at Thornfalcon came up for sale. They sold their home in Islington, north London, days later. In Somerset they have created a welcoming home that is a stylish mix of contemporary art and more traditional furnishings. All of the furniture — from the blue Chesterfield sofa by the fire in the living room, to the 19th- century Sussex chairs in the bedrooms — is second-hand. While still sick in bed, Brendel made mood boards of how she wanted the house to look and scoured online auctions. 'Panu suddenly started seeing all these boxes arrive, three months before we moved,' she says. 'I had a multicoloured spreadsheet of every item, where it was being stored, which room it was going into.' Two weeks after completing, their new home was furnished and ready to host a large family Christmas. The welcoming house mixes contemporary art and traditional furnishings, all of which is second-hand The bright farmhouse kitchen, with its coffeepots and hanging lavender and chillies Throughout the house, cushions and curtains were all made by Brendel. Much of the art, meanwhile, is from friends. Frames along the staircase reveal a birthday card drawn by artist Annie Morris alongside photos of their children, Lara and Sasha; a piece of gold ceramic that was a gift from Edmund de Waal (to celebrate the opening of the Young V&A in east London), and a letter from Brendel's father, the pianist Alfred Brendel, given at her 21st birthday. Read More The 10 Best vacuum cleaners The farmhouse kitchen is a warm, bright space looking out on to a small pond; there is a wide scrubbed wooden table, and a stove hung with strings of dried chillies and homemade lavender wreaths. On the table there's sourdough from Bonners deli in Ilminster and blue eggs from their Legbar hens. Along with land, they inherited doves, geese and a roost of ageing chickens. An elderly hen broke its leg six weeks after they moved in, says Brendel. 'I will never forget trying to memorise the 13 steps on wikiHow of how humanely to kill a chicken.' The vegetable garden produces lettuce, rocket, asparagus and gargantuan radishes Their new life has been 'a steep learning curve', says Long. 'We are fortunate the old owners became friends and advised us about managing the land.' Their gardener, artist Helen Knight, still tends to the vegetable garden, with its gargantuan radishes, multiple varieties of lettuce, rocket, peas and asparagus, building hazel wands around the foxgloves and peonies that promote cross-pollination. Estate manager Jeremy Carey has also stayed on. In 2023, the couple planted the first vineyard by hand, focusing on varieties traditionally used in Champagne: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir Meunier. Last summer, they added hardier hybrid winemaking varietals, including Voltis and Cabernet Noir (which Long could layer into either sparkling or still wine). Their approach is as organic as possible: no herbicides, while local sheep — and their lambs — graze between the vines. Long reviews the keeved cider and Pinot Noir rosé in the winery's 750-litre steel tanks One of Thornfalcon's traditional basket wine presses The zero-sprayed, fully organic orchards, planted with mainly Kingston Black as well as Browns, Stembridge Cluster and Porter's Perfection, already produce some 10 tonnes of apples a year, though they intend to plant more. Using the farm's 150-year-old apple press, Long hopes to create their first limited edition of keeved cider this summer. 'Keeved is an off-dry cider, which finishes its fermentation in a champagne bottle,' he explains. 'It's not sweet, and is naturally carbonated like a sparkling wine would be.' I will never forget trying to memorise the 13 steps on wikiHow of how humanely to kill a chicken All going well, they will join a burgeoning moment in British cider — the Fine Cider Company distributes labels such as Naughton Cider and Find & Foster, at up to £35 a bottle, direct to consumers but also to Michelin-starred restaurants such as the Fat Duck in Bray, Berkshire, and Lyle's and The Ledbury in London. 'We are learning how to navigate marriage and setting up a business, which can't be one and the same thing,' says Long, stroking their black Labrador, Captain. 'You need to sit down and have meetings. It can go wrong if you assume you know what the other person is thinking.' The swimming lake is shared with swans and otters Where Long's purview is transforming plants to something you'd want to drink, Brendel has a wider brief. 'If it takes seven years from planting a vine to your first bottle of sparkling wine, we need to have a sustainable financial model which balances running costs,' she says. Central to this is accommodation. She designed a shepherd's hut, looking out across the vines: a charming bedroom with Lake August nasturtium wallpaper, a tiny log stove in the living room and a hammered copper bath out under the stars. This and the lambing shed, with its wood-fired bath for two, and the two-bedroom coach house can all be booked with access to the lake and a waterside wood-fired sauna — an essential addition since Long's mother is Finnish and he takes sauna seriously. 'We are learning how to navigate marriage and setting up a business, which can't be one and the same thing,' says Long Doves, geese and a roost of ageing chickens came with the farm Brendel brings to Thornfalcon a track record with business strategy. 'It is my background — what I did at the V&A and at the BBC,' she says. 'Now, as a strategic consultant, I'm working with the Royal Shakespeare Company and Somerset House.' Still, it's been, at times, a bumpy ride. When the delivery of the shepherd's hut was delayed, it wiped out some eight months of rental income — 'and for a while it looked like the supplier might go bankrupt with our money: that's the challenge of wanting to work with smaller businesses'. Then there's the changing landscape of grants, with many vanishing since Brexit. Some costs, such as thatching the roof, keep rising. In the second phase of Thornfalcon's development, they will take on investment to convert a textured stone outbuilding that looks across the vines to Thorn Hill into an events space: as well as hosting supper clubs, plans include a wine school and corporate hospitality. Future plans for the estate include an events space for supper clubs, a wine school and corporate hospitality Plenty of people are ready to share the dream, and support it. A good deal of the first cider harvest was done in one day, when friends and their children from the village turned out to gather the windfall apples. They are also helped out by volunteers from the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms — Wwoofers — who come and work for five hours a day in exchange for board and lodging. 'It's a magic place, and we are excited to share it,' says Brendel, underlining a crucial element in her business plan. 'These days, if something doesn't bring me joy I am not interested.' Recommended Find out about our latest stories first — follow @ft_houseandhome on Instagram
