00:00Hello, I'm Joseph Mirovich and welcome to English Wine Industry, a celebration of the arts of the English wine industry,
00:07which you'll be surprised to find is quite big around the region.
00:11I'm here at Pattingham Vineyard with Steph and Jane Wilcox, who are the parts of the power behind the throne, I suppose, of the vineyard.
00:18Let's just start with the basics. How long has this vineyard been here for?
00:22It was planted in 2018. We planted the first two vineyards in 2018 and then followed by the third vineyard in 2019 and then 2020.
00:34Where did the idea come from?
00:36Well, we just happened to buy 36 acres next to our house because it came for sale and we didn't know what to do with it and then decided to plant a vineyard as you do.
00:50And you've always been sort of keenly interested in wine in that case?
00:53We've always liked drinking wine and I didn't know a lot about it.
00:59I'm guessing it was sort of trial by error and learning as you would do?
01:02Yes, definitely.
01:04But from the first harvest, how long along the line did it go before you sort of thought, okay, this wine's ready to first try but that's a sale?
01:13Well, once the first harvest came in 2021, it goes into tank and then it's ready in about the May kind of time of the following year.
01:25So we started selling our first wine for our first vintage in probably the spring of 2022.
01:31Which one was the first one?
01:32We released our Solaris first, our white wine.
01:38And how did you get the name out first of all? Because I'm guessing that people went, what, there's a vineyard in Passingham?
01:44Yeah, it was slow. We started with food festivals, so local, in the local area, so food festivals and approached local pubs and things like that.
01:54Yeah, we've got a few distribution centres online as well, which is amazing.
02:01But from the sort of first days, what was the reaction to people when they tried the wine for the first time?
02:06Very good.
02:07Yeah, really good, yeah.
02:08It's always been good.
02:09Yeah, like the branding, like the wine bottles, like the labels and the wine, so yeah.
02:15And so from the stage of building it initially to building, the building that we can see behind us, what's the process for that?
02:23I mean, how did you deal with the idea of having the visitor centre?
02:26Erm, the main thing was people wandering up to the vineyard and saying, I'd like to buy some wine.
02:31We didn't have a counter, we didn't have our wine on display, we were really interested in filling the vineyard.
02:38And we knew that we needed to supply the water and to buy it, the more that people are going to have that we're here.
02:45Obviously it's a bit generous and a bit of interest on the area.
02:48Yeah, so we're getting busier and busier, so it's good to be done.
02:53On average, how many bubbles do you think you sell every year?
02:57Well, we make around 35,000 bottles a year, on a good year on average, and yeah, we'll try and sell as much as we can.
03:07But obviously it must be doing well, because you've won several awards.
03:10We have, yes, we've just won a decanter on support for our service.
03:16And we've won a GV awards for gold for, you know, a while we go.
03:26I suppose the big thing for yourselves right now is to get yourself a bit of help in the area,
03:30because it's kind of a best kept secret, unless you were driving down Greymoor Road, you wouldn't know this was here.
03:35No.
03:37So where do you think you're going to actually get the name out of it?
03:40Word of mouth and publicity, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
03:44The more people come, the more people tell people, and that's working so far.
03:49But yeah, it's, yeah, yeah.
03:50And what is it about English wine to you that makes it so unique, so different compared to what you can get out of the country?
03:56The fact that it is planted and grown?
04:02Yeah, in less AMRs. I think people are looking for that, especially restaurants and things.
04:07They're really looking for local, you know, and homegrown produce, which is good.
04:14So it's definitely on the up.
04:16Yeah.
04:17And speaking of what's the appeal of that for people, do you think it's just the homegrown owner that doesn't plant there, which is really good?
04:26Well, it's a good one. I mean, it's a good one. It's a good one. It's a good one. It's really good. So yeah, we've got kind of a bunch of volunteers. I mean, we're always looking for more. So when harvest time comes, it's a good opportunity to get out of the day and be a grain or shine.
04:48It's usually rain.
04:49Well, it's obviously at the benefit, isn't it?
04:52Yes.
04:53Yeah.
04:54But if you look at the camera right now, what do you say to people to encourage them to?
04:58I think that's a good one. What's it going down here?
05:01Well, yeah, it's a perfect opportunity. It's English Wine Week. So yeah, get yourself to any local vineyard, really, in your region and try English wine.
05:11And enjoy. Yeah. Taking the sun.
05:15What more could you possibly want for a nice day in June?
05:19Well, here inside Pattingham Vineyard, you can walk away with some really good wines. This is the Solaris and this is the Divico. As you can see, the whites and the red.
05:28It's two that have worn awards for them and they are very well regarded. This one has a lovely citrusy smell to it.
05:35It's a very, very sweet smell to it and a lovely tangy taste.
05:43The Divico has a lovely warming smell to it and it's got a lovely deep taste to it.
05:55So both of these are very good. If you want to get yourselves down to Pattingham Vineyard, please do so.
