Bath, UK / Est. 2019
OURSTORY
The purpose, vision and history behind Bath's first luxury sparkling wine since the Romans.
- Soil
- Limestone
- Place
- Corston
- Founder
- Emily
- Legacy
- Roman
01
Why ‘Minerva’?
Minerva — the Roman goddess of wisdom, the arts and strategy. Highly honoured by the Romans as the most revered of their goddesses, Marcus Terentius Varro considered her to be "ideas and the plan for the universe personified." A common depiction of Minerva is a tall, athletic woman in armour, accompanied by her sacred Owl — symbolic of her association with wisdom and knowledge.
02
A Centre of Excellence
In taking on the patronage of Minerva, our aims are clear. We wish to inspire the next generation of farmers, artists, winemakers, innovators and creators — in particular our women and girls.
To this end we are building a viticulture Centre of Excellence, to help empower the next generation in our communities, aiding them in embracing a changing world with open arms.
03
Spreading the Seeds
Just as our much loved migratory birds must travel to learn and return anew, we will be encouraging our young community to take their knowledge and experience from the Minerva Centre of Excellence — to fly the nest towards new adventures across southern seas.
New Viti-Pathways will be laid to vineyards in New Zealand, Australia and Chile, where our community can meet new life-long friends and build on their skills and character, all whilst enveloping themselves in the beautiful experience of newfound culture.
04
Bringing It Home
Wisdom is considered a virtue but really it is a whole way of living. Aristotle held that "it is evident that it is impossible to be practically wise without being good." Practical wisdom, then, is showing kindness to one another.
It's what we've found out in the vineyard — that spending time with friends and family brings the best opportunities for kindness out of all of us.
05
Meet Emily
A third-generation farmer, Emily Addicott-Sauvao grew up intrinsically connected to this land — the soil her parents cultivated for over 40 years to high acclaim, even granted special status by the wartime government.
Emily is not one to shy away from a challenge. She is the first farmer in the South West of England to grow quinoa, and in 2017 took over the tenancy of the family farm.
06
Send A Cow
Over the years the farm has been host to many charity fundraising events, from open gardens to music festivals. Of greatest significance, the successful charity Send A Cow was an idea developed by Emily's parents Gerald and Ros, who directed the charity from the farm for its first six years, before it moved on to larger premises at Priston Mill, then to Newton St Loe — where it continues to this day as Ripple Effect.
07 · 2011
The Vine Finds Home
Following an intuition that the local terroir had something unique to offer, the idea to plant vines over Bath limestone was conceived on a trip to visit Emily's family in Beaune — the Burgundy winemaking region.
After a morning's wine tasting at the renowned Le Cellier de la Cabiote, Emily remarked that the soil looked very similar to that on the farm in Corston. It was a throw-away comment at the time — "perhaps we should plant a vineyard along with the quinoa."
08 · 2015
Ten Thousand Vines
Four years later we took the audacious decision to plant ten thousand vines at Corston, just up the road from the World Heritage city of Bath. A few thought we were crazy — but the Romans had grown vines in these very fields, and we had taken it upon ourselves to carry on their legacy.
Nurturing ten thousand vines, and juggling the day job, believing we would cultivate grapes that could produce quality sparkling wine — it has been exciting, scary, and a long lesson in patience.
09 · 2019
The First Vintage
For Minerva's first vintage we brought in Emma Rice of Hattingley Valley — twice UKVA Winemaker of the Year, and among the most decorated English sparkling winemakers of her generation.
The Minerva Sparkling 2019 went on to win a Decanter Award in 2023 — vindication for the soil Emily first recognised in Beaune, all those years before.