The 2021 planting season was a big one for Vine-Works Ltd. There have been a lot of ‘firsts’ for the business. Vineyards in far flung locations across the UK, record year, vine deliveries in December, post-Brexit vine importing, UK plant passports and the first year ever that Vine-Works has run two planting teams.

The Wiston Estate has enjoyed considerable success in recent years. Vineyard spoke to one of the founders to hear how it has achieved so much in such a short time.

PIWI is a German abbreviation for Pilzwiderstandsfähig – which essentially means fungal resistant. These grape varieties have been bred and selected to have a high resistance to fungal diseases, so reducing the cost of inputs. Vineyard finds out why these innovative grape varieties have an important future in UK wine production. 

Innovative technologies to enable precision viticulture and enhance production are not futuristic notions, they are soon to be upon us, as the latest research in data-driven production spreads fast through agriculture and viticulture.  Vineyard finds out how these advances will aid efficiency and provide a competitive edge to vineyard businesses. 

The proverb ‘great oaks from little acorns grow’ is fitting for the short but spectacular story of Llanerch vineyard’s success.  At just 24 years old Ryan Davies bought one of the oldest vineyards in Wales with the vision of creating a tourism-driven vineyard business inspired by those he had seen on his antipodean travels. Vineyard discovers how, in Just 10 years, Llanerch has become an international visitor destination with award-winning restaurant, hotel, wedding and conference facilities – and is also leading the way with new viticulture technology.

Going sustainable – our rhyme and reason, writes Tim Ferris of Vine-Works Ltd.

Great Britain is an island of weather with many different and competing patterns – and to top that we are now dealing with climate change.  Dr Alistair Nesbitt is a Viticulture Climatologist with significant expertise in how weather and climate interface with wine production. He is based in the UK but advises globally and holds the UK’s first PhD in Viticulture and Climate Science. Vineyard asks Alistair what the likely changes to our growing conditions will be, which opportunities and threats face our industry – and how producers can become more resilient to the changes of the future. 

Unreliable yield forecasts cost money, waste resources and depress profitably. Poor forecasts are one of the largest causes of tension, stress and conflict between vineyard managers and winemakers. Vineyard finds out why it’s important to improve accuracy and which forecasting methods work. 

Quietly getting on with producing some of the country’s top award-winning wines is Oxney, the UK’s largest single organic estate, tucked away near Rye in rural East Sussex. The focus is on organic production, low intervention winemaking, preserving the soils and treading lightly on the environment. Many may see organic production as an impossible challenge – but Vineyard finds out how Oxney’s resourceful and imaginative approach is resetting the expectations of organic wine production in England – with soils, sheep and silence.