Vineyard enjoying fruits of first harvest with range of wines

Pattingham Vineyard has been busy selling its 2021 vintage wines, in red, wine and rose, while also beginning work on its next vintage on the vineyard, which is located just outside the village in South Staffordshire.

The vineyard came into being in 2018 after Martin and Jane Wilcox and their daughter Stevie Wilcox began growing vines on the land they had bought in 2016, with Stevie saying they had been advised that the land would be good for the vines.

She said: "We were looking at possibly growing Christmas trees and other things, but my parents went to Halfpenny Green and bought some wine and when the owner delivered it to us, he said we had the same sort of land as them and the vines would grow really well.

"The family have always had a good interest in wine and it was something they'd always been interested in, so decided to give it a go.

"What helps us is the fact that our land is south facing and the soil is really good, with free draining and a stream running through it, and the soil has a mixture of sand and lime in it, so it's a great environment for the vines to grow in."

The vineyard is now producing around 30,000 bottles per year, with four wines currently available in the white Nurton Brook, rose Moor Meadow and red Rudge Heath and Great Moor and a sparking white currently being prepared for later this year.

Ms Wilcox said the success of the wine and the vineyard showed that it wasn't just the south coast that could produce a quality English wine.

She said: "It's been great to see that new vineyards are coming up and a lot of them are in Staffordshire because there are so many on the south coast and every parcel of land has a vineyard, so it's nice that we can do it up here as well and it's not all about Dorset.

"If people want to come along and try our wines, we have started our vineyard tours, which means people can take a walk around the vineyard and do a tasting at the end.

"We don't have an on-site shop at the moment, but our licence allows us to take orders online and people can drink as part of the tour and we are working on getting a shop in the future."

To find out more about Pattingham Vineyard, go to pattinghamvineyard.co.uk