Yorkshire Vineyards hold their own with healthy sales during lockdown

We were never much of a wine-drinking nation until perhaps 30 years ago, but statistics released in November 2019 showed that not only does today’s average Briton now consume 108 bottles of wine a year, we also top the league table of Western Europe!
Yorkshire Vineyards are doing well during lockdownYorkshire Vineyards are doing well during lockdown
Yorkshire Vineyards are doing well during lockdown

We were never much of a wine-drinking nation until perhaps 30 years ago, but statistics released in November 2019 showed that not only does today’s average Briton now consume 108 bottles of wine a year, we also top the league table of Western Europe!

Whether this should be a matter of national pride is open to conjecture, but it has brought about a new sector of agriculture.

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Thirty-five years ago George Bowden started Leventhorpe Vineyard at Woodlesford, a handful of miles from Leeds. For many years he was Yorkshire’s lone wine producer. In the past fifteen years he has been joined by a number of others as the county has awakened to the realisation it is possible to grow grapes of quality and wines that people enjoy from the North of England.

Once seen as a bit of a joke, the wines produced in our home shores have now won prestigious awards and are currently exported to over 40 countries worldwide. We may well be behind production levels in Italy, Spain, France and Australia but 13.2 million bottles produced in 2018 tells the story of a sector that has quadrupled since 2000 and industry estimates show is set to quadruple again in the coming decade.

This time of year is pruning and preparation time in the county’s vineyards, when they generally have a degree of self-isolation similar to sheep farmers at lambing time, but they are also now have a significant level of vines and wine sales that need to be maintained in order for their businesses to carry on.

Lockdown has had an impact on all walks of life and every sector, but how has it affected a still fledgling sector such as Yorkshire’s winemakers?

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Ian Sargent runs Laurel Vines at Aike, four miles north of Beverley in the East Riding. Ian is chairman of Wine GB for the Midlands and North area. He planted his first vines in 2011 and his first wines were available in 2015.

“The vines don’t stop growing,” says Ian. “We’ve built up our vines sequentially year on year from the 2,000 we started with, to the 12,500 we have currently, producing 16,000 to 20,000 bottles per year across our varieties including red, white, rose and sparkling.

“We lost a big chunk of our trade sales to restaurants and wholesalers when lockdown came but my daughter, Rebekah, has improved our social media massively and the sales we have made over the past seven weeks through private individuals has set us up really well for the future. I certainly see the ordering online of wine for home consumption continuing after the restrictions are lifted.

“Those new customers who have initially ordered a box of six bottles are now coming back as repeat customers and ordering 18-24 bottles. We’ve also had businesses ordering boxes for their teams and having them sent direct to their homes by way of thanks.

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“We’ve very nearly sold out of our wine from the 2017 grape harvest and we have just taken our 2018 production out of oak and into stainless ready for bottling.”

Chris Stakouskas and his wife, Gillian, run the Yorkshire Heart Vineyard and Brewery at Nun Monkton between York and Harrogate. They planted their first vines in 2006 and now have 22,000 vines across 14 acres.

“Gillian and I self-isolate every winter as we are that busy pruning and handling trellising work for four to five months following harvest. For our business, where we rely on tourism as well as the pub and restaurant trade, the past weeks have not been good, but our online sales have increased tremendously.”

Chris and Gillian have built a fantastic tourism business offering, with tours of the vineyard and wine tasting in their wine house proving very popular.

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“Over half of our sales have come from the wine house. We have parties of 80-100 here each day every week during the main season.

“On the positive side we’ve had two very good harvests in 2018 and last year and we know that our Pinot Noir, Solaris, Rondo, Seyval Blanc and Ortega – our main grape varieties from the 14 we grow – will stand us in good stead. Our ambition was always to have a full year’s wine in stock.”

Henry Wilson started Little Wold Vineyard at South Cave, near Hull, that now includes son and daughter, Tom and Alice, in 2012 and currently has 12,000 vines, including vines at The Summerhouse Vineyard near Doncaster that he has rented in addition.

He has a 200-acre farm growing other specific niche crops such as willow. He produced his first wine in 2016. Henry also reports positive news on the online sales recently. It hasn’t covered for what we’ve lost in sales in the trade and through our wedding venue, that has been very successful and also doubles as our tasting room, but it is encouraging.

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“We had a fabulous harvest in 2018, the kind of harvest you’d want every year, and then a good one in 2019.

“We pulled in foreign labour last year for the grape picking and the people we had were fantastic.

“They knew what they were doing, were very professional and exceptionally hard working and went through the harvesting like a swarm of locusts, in the best way possible. We will have our 2019 production bottled any day now.”

George Bowden, of Leventhorpe Vineyard, is typically unflappable over his wine production and sales. He tells of his dealings with an altogether more unpleasant visitor.

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“I’ve lost the restaurant trade like everybody else, but the mail order side of my business is still ticking away steadily.

“The thing is that good wine won’t deteriorate. I’m more concerned with the fieldfare, a species of the thrush family.

“When they come, as they did for an early grape, they tend to hang around for the rest of the crop. I’ve encouraged raptors like the buzzard, hen harrier and peregrine falcon. The crow and thrush act very differently when a hen harrier is about.”