Lance Whitehead – Managing Director at Dartmouth Gin and Calancombe Estate Vineyard:
Sunday 2:30 – 3:15pm
Bio:
Lance Whitehead established Calancombe Estate Vineyard with his wife, Caroline, on a derelict farm near Modbury in 2012. Over the years, they have planted 23,000 vines, 1,600 traditional West Country cider apple trees and 3,000 blackcurrant bushes, and they now make award winning still and sparkling white and rosé wines, champagne-method cyder and Cassis. While waiting for the crops to develop, Lance bought a German column still and began to make Dartmouth English Gin, which almost immediately won ‘Craft Gin of the Year 2018’ against 120 European distilleries. Since then, this gin has been featured by Channel 4, the BBC and it was chosen as the Gin of the Month by the Craft Gin Club in 2020. More recently, Lance has begun to make Calvados-method brandy from Calancombe apples. Lance served in the RAF Regiment for 20 years, since when he has been working in the venture capital industry as a fundraiser.