Itasca
Vision and ambition are the defining characteristics of Itasca Wines, which is on track to become the biggest contract winemaking business in the country – just five years after launching.
Itasca Wines, which also produces its own award-winning wines under the Penn Croft label, opened for business at Crondall on the Surrey/Hampshire border in 2020 and is now constructing a second winery, this one perfectly sited close to Maldon, in Essex’s wine-friendly Crouch Valley.
The two facilities will allow Itasca to process 2,000 tonnes of grapes each autumn, a capacity which long-term commercial director and now main board member John Wilkins (“I’ve done everything over the past five years except make the wine”) said would make it easily the biggest contract winemaker in the UK.
The vision and ambition comes from the unstoppable Malcolm Walker, founder and chief executive of Itasca Wines, which recently went from being a private company to a public limited one (PLC) to give it more flexibility in raising funds to expand still further. “It meant undergoing rigorous checks and spending a fortune, but it was right for the business,” Malcolm said.
As John explained: “It’s been a very, very exciting ride over the past five years.” That exciting ride has included not only making wine for a number of big-name vineyards and for Penn Croft, but proving a full supply and installation service through its Itasca Technical Services division and moving into wine tourism with the opening of a cellar door at Crondall.
As if that wasn’t enough growth in just five years, the business has now taken on a grade II* listed building at Cranborne in Dorset which dates back to 1730, and is turning it into an upmarket ‘wine hotel’ destination.
