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We’re surrounded by farmers here and only some of them know what we are doing … we don’t broadcast it too much because they would probably lock you up.”
WHEN PICTURING A winery, the first images to come to mind might be a French château or a sun-kissed Australian valley. Something a long way from a sodden Irish field.
Yet a handful of ambitious – maybe foolhardy – producers are trying their hand at making the nectar of the Gods in a land renowned for pints of the black stuff.
David Llewellyn, probably best known for his cider and other apple products, has been selling wine made from the nearly 1,000 vines on his farm at Lusk in north County Dublin for the past decade.
“That’s tiny in vineyard terms … but I have got to the stage where I feel I am making pretty good red wine,” he told TheJournal.ie.
I’ve been selling wines since 2005 and since then only a few years would have been missed; some years I wouldn’t have had a crop or I wasn’t happy enough to sell it.”
It is a modest assessment from the man behind the only vineyard consistently producing commercial batches of Irish wine on the local market.
Ireland is, believe it or not, classified under the EU’s official wine-growing regions, joining much of Germany, as well as the UK and other northern European countries in a cold-climate zone.
However according to the Department of Agriculture, which doesn’t regulate vineyards because of the small scale of production in the country, Llewellyn is the only known commercial winemaker in the country.
The trained horticulturist, who said he learned the trade from working on other vineyards and trial and error, grows mostly cabernet sauvignon, merlot and rondo grapes on about half an acre of land.
An unfriendly climate
It is the last variety, a hardy, dark-skinned grape, that has proven the most suitable to Ireland’s unfriendly climate, growing outdoors without protection despite the dearth of sunshine during the essential ripening season.
“Producing in Ireland, there are so many disadvantages compared to an established wine-growing region,” Llewellyn said.
“You’ve got the weather to deal with, you’ve got lower yields so therefore you’ve got a very small scale.
Also, there are the disadvantages of having no supporting industry and there’s no body of expertise and advice to fall back on when you are setting up. You’re paddling your own canoe and making your own mistakes.”
Llewellyn admitted his Lusca wine, of which he produced about 500 litres each year and sold for €45 per bottle in specialist Dublin outlets, was “pretty expensive by normal comparisons”.
But people buy it, they taste it and they like it. I think the main thing for most people is novelty value, curiosity value.”
Southern exposure
Meanwhile in the south, there is what appears to be Ireland’s longest-standing and most-mysterious winemaker – apparently flying under the radar of even agriculture officials.
The Thomas Walk Vineyard near Kinsale in Cork is probably the largest on the island, according to its namesake founder.
German native Walk said he had been cultivating vines in the region since the mid-1980s and he was the first to successfully grow red grapes outdoors in the cold climate.
“I always like to do things which are unusual and making red wine in Ireland is very unusual – and it is even more unusual to do it successfully,” he said.
Walk, who is keen to keep his winery private from prying eyes for now, said he was growing up to three acres of grapes also using the rondo variety – although he was tight-lipped about how much of the end product he was actually making.
The winery’s website lists 2010 and 2013 vintages “spoiled by the southern sun of Kinsale” starting from about €25 per bottle with all the transactions done via Germany.
A chequered history
Others winemakers have come and gone in various parts of the island from as early as the 1960s.
According to Stephen Skelton’s UK Vineyards Guide, which includes an appendix on Ireland, Michael O’Callaghan had a crop at Longueville House in Cork’s Blackwater Valley from the early 1970s.
While the vineyard at one stage covered more than two acres, it was abandoned about five years ago and replaced with further orchards after he died.
Nearby, Mallow GP Billy Christopher started planting vines at his Blackwater Valley Vineyard in the mid-80s and produced wine through to 2006 – when the project was scrapped.
He told the author he had “20 years of fun” with the winery, but the inconsistent harvests meant the risk and reward were too far out of whack to make a vineyard worthwhile.
And Skelton, one of the UK’s top authorities on vineyards, was blunt in his assessment of the future prospects for any Irish winemakers.
“You just don’t have the sunshine and you don’t have the climate – although I would love to be proved wrong,” he told TheJournal.ie.
It has been tried and it hasn’t worked. There are grape varieties that no doubt will grow in very, very cool climates, but they make rubbish wine.”
Even in England and Wales, where warmer summers have enabled about 500 winemakers to set up and locally-made sparkling wines have been getting international recognition, there were questions over whether it was a sustainable pursuit.
“It’s not just a matter of finding a grape variety that will produce a fruit, you also need to make a wine that you don’t have to charge a price for that’s too high for what the quality is worth,” Skelton said.
‘Romantic’
But the challenge hasn’t deterred new winemakers from trying where others have given up.
Since 2011, David Dennison, who runs a wine-importation business and also grows crops like raspberries and blackcurrants, has been planting grapes at his property in Waterford and now has about 2,000 vines of rondo, pinot noir and several white varieties spanning about two acres.
He expects to make 500 bottles as an “experimental batch” – mostly rondo-based reds – this year and believes there is “huge potential” for selling wines from the southeast after visiting vineyards in the UK.
“We’re surrounded by farmers here and only some of them know what we are doing … we don’t broadcast it too much because they would probably lock you up,” he said.
In realistic terms it’s peripheral, but then you look at other crops that we grow in this country and you would wonder sometimes if they’re peripheral as well.”
Dennison said he believed successful commercial vineyards were possible in Ireland with the right grapes and growing techniques.
“Is it romantic? If you can sit down and drink a bottle of your own wine it’s romantic, but it’s a tough crop.”
This month, as part of TheJournal.ie’s ongoing startup and small and medium enterprise (SME) focus, we are looking at the drinks industry.
To view other stories from our collection, click here.
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Will be getting a pro-rata refund on our monthly plans for the period the service was unavailable? Because the minute you go over your data/call allowance the sure know how to charge you.
I’m sure their own eff ups are catered for in their fine print. Typical big business, cover their arises but screw the little people over.
Not a chance. Suck it up
Think of the money you saved by not being billed for calls, texts and data over the 12-hour period!
What if you’re on a plan that covers all calls, texts and data?
Dreadful service there providing… Wish o2 had chosen not to sell out of Ireland…. Had no internet reception last week despite being in a well established 3G area… Very frustrating
Internet is always disconnecting since 02 sold to 3
I switched to 3 last October from Meteor as their monthly bill rate was cheaper. Never had a single problem with getting signal in my apartment with Meteor, couldn’t get an ounce of signal with 3. Rang them and they told me to ‘give it a few days’ as it was a new connection. Week later rang them back, still no signal, they blamed it on the triple glazed windows and the fact it was an apartment block. Moved to a house in Rathcoole in January, still not an ounce of signal. Moved to Kildare in February, have signal now but Internet signal is still patchy at best.. I should have stayed with meteor and paid the extra tenner.
Cool story, bro.
Very little chance this had anything to do with the three take over. Its not like they tore down o2s network and put up their own, probably would have happened anyway.
Its shocking Kate Ellen, was in West Cork over the weekend & before when i was on o2 network i had 3G coverage where my family home is as there was a mast directly across from us so o2 always had excellent coverage.. Now since 3 took over there is no internet at all there its shocking & very frustrating…
Great start to our forced takeover by three for us former 02 customers. In ten years with 02 I never recall this happening, couple of weeks in and we go out of service for an entire day!!! Just adds to the concerns and reservations of 02 customers who have been transferred over to 3 without our consent
Consent? They bought the company, they don’t need your consent.
Should be an option to opt out, whilst I’m aware they don’t need my consent as a customer I should be allowed leave if I don’t have confidence in the new provider. I signed up with 02 not 3 and they’ve now scarpered mid contract. My one experience with 3 was about 7 years ago with an internet dongle and the signal was beyond crap and the customer service laughable, my gut instincts so far tell me not much has changed. Luckily I only have a few months left to run so its highly unlikely I’ll be staying with them
I had the same problem with three in London. Do not setup a direct debit with this company.
I wouldn’t trust 3 as far as I could throw them. I had a bad experience with their customer service on a few occasions. When I cancelled my contract with them, a few months later they came back and told me I hadn’t cancelled and denied even getting my call. The next time I called they told me that they had loged my call as a request for an upgrade. In the end they threatened to send the bailiff and it cost me an extra €60. How they ever got approved for the national broadband schemeis besides me. Not a company I would recommend to my worst enemy.
I still don’t have any service??
So how did you post your comment on here.
Free WiFi
WiFi? Isn’t tech great Denise.
Yes, wifi connection still working.
However, my my network connection is just back, thankfully.
I’d say the customer service centre in India earned their money yesterday!!!
Wouldn’t happen to vodafone customers, you get what you pay for peasants
More fool you for paying Vodafones rip off charges for little in return. C.S is appalling at Vodafone.
3 network nearly cost me a good few euros good job there was a bookies nearby…
First world problems.
Not if you need an ambulance or other emergency services and your mobile is your only way of contacting them.
Rubbish! You’ll always be able to make an emergency call even if your signal is down as it will automatically latch onto other service providers.
Emergency calls override the network and connect to any available signal. 112 can be called even when there’s no SIM in the phone
You’re mistaken sir. I had the unfortunate scenario quite recently, of having to dial 999. 4 occasions with call failed – Three network, had to drive to neighbours to use a landline
Call them and ask for a credit on you bill!!
I still don’t have any service !
Looking for alternative provider.
There is still a gap in pickup to answer it’s getting annoying.
Total loss of service since last Thursday and I’m on meteor anyone else having probs on meteor???
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