A sprawling Georgian home with a wine cellar so big you could drink a different bottle every day for eight years
The spectacular and commutable Culverlands Estate is centred on a wonderful Georgian country house, but that's just the start of its appeal.
There's a detail in the property listing for Culverlands — for sale in Berkshire at £7.25 million through Knight Frank and Strutt & Parker — which hopped out: there's a wine cellar with space for 3,000 bottles.
For those of us whose collections extends to a handful of dusty clarets in the cupboard under the stairs, this is a number so large as to lose all meaning. So, we did a few sums: 3,000 bottles of wine is about 500 gallons of the good stuff. If wine were petrol, it would be enough to fill up the average family car about 45 times over. And if you opened a different bottle every night, it'd take you eight years, two months and 20 days before you had to go to Aldi to restock.
Except you wouldn't, because 15.5 acres of Culverlands' 146 acres are a vineyard — and according to our calculations, you'll have made a further quarter of a million bottles of wine in the intervening eight years. In short, this home is probably the ultimate wine lover's dream.
It's probably also a very good business opportunity for the right person, with the right expertise, and some entrepreneurial flair. For although the £7.25 million asking price is a lot of money, making a fiver a bottle off your home-grown wine would pay off about half the cost of the house over 20 years. And during those two decades, you'd also have the joy of living in a quite wonderful home in a fabulous location.
The Culverlands Estate is located in Burghfield Common, on the edge of the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, 3½ miles from Theale and seven miles from the commuter hub of Reading. It's a historic estate, which stands on high ground and enjoys panoramic views over its own land and the surrounding Berkshire countryside.
At the heart of the land stands the imposing, Grade II-listed Culverlands itself, a handsome, 10,866sq ft, Georgian country house reputedly built in 1705 for a member of the Royal Family. Well-connected subsequent owners include the royal physician Sir Gilbert Blane (from 1749–1834); Dr Horatio Bland, a wealthy Canadian-born merchant who bought large tracts of land in Burghfield and founded Reading Museum (from 1851–61); the magistrate and surgeon, James Taylor (from 1861–72); Arthur Thursby, High Sheriff for Berkshire and Warwickshire (from 1890–1909); and Sir Charles Wyndham Murray, who was MP for Bath and the King’s messenger in France during the First World War (from 1923–28).
The present custodians bought Culverlands with 120 acres in 2011, and later acquired
further land, where they have created the thriving vineyard on a south-east slope of this environmentally friendly estate.
The rest of the grounds are just as enticing as the vineyard. They combine formal landscaped gardens and paddocks with level pasture and arable land enclosed by mature hedges, trees and woodland.
Mature broadleaved woodland has been carefully managed and extensive tree-planting undertaken, with new grassland sown within a Countryside Stewardship Scheme. The back of the house overlooks grand, landscaped lawns where, off to one side, there's a fine swimming pool.
The owners have also substantially improved the house, with the renewal of bathrooms and the kitchen.
The striking Georgian exterior is complemented by a wealth of original features, including open fireplaces, high ceilings, ornate cornicing, large sash windows, working shutters and parquet flooring.
In all, Culverlands offers spacious, light-filled accommodation on three floors, including a large reception hall, impressive drawing and dining rooms, a fully fitted kitchen, a television room, study and office, four bedroom suites, two further bedrooms and shower rooms, a cinema room and a gym.
There is also, of course, that cellar, with space for those 3,000 bottles of wine. If the wine making goes well, you might want to think about extending that...
The Culverlands Estate is for sale through Knight Frank and Strutt & Parker at £7.25 million.
