It’s a vineyard set deep in the heart of the South Staffordshire countryside which has been making waves in the English wine industry through hard work, the right type of soil and a desire to create something unique and tasty.
Since planting the first set of vines in 2018, the vineyard on the outskirts of Pattingham has grown in size and stature, with its original four acres becoming 12 in quick order as demand increased.
Pattingham Vineyard started in 2016 when Martin and Jane Wilcox had the opportunity to buy 36 acres of land next to their home and, after taking time to think about what to do with it, decided to start a vineyard.
Ms Wilcox said that while she and her husband didn’t know much about winemaking, they enjoyed the taste of wine and decided to give it a go, with the first harvest being pulled in in 2021.
Now, working alongside their daughter Steph, the family-run business has become an enterprise which produces close to 30,000 bottles a year across four vineyards and producing six different wines, including two reds, a white, a Rosé and two sparkling wines in white and Rosé.
Steph said that getting the name out to the community of the vineyard had been the challenge, but said the quality of the wine, with the first being the Nurton Brook white made from the Solaris grape, had definitely helped.
She said: “Once the first harvest came in in 2021, it went into tank and, after that, it was ready in May the next year, so we started selling our first wine from our first vintage in the spring of 2022, which was when we released our Solaris white wine.
“Getting the name out was a bit slow to begin with, but we started with food festivals in the local area, then approached local pubs and the like.
“The reaction from people was very good as they liked the branding on the labels to start with and they really loved the wine.”
The vineyard has flourished since first opening, with the land itself being perfect for growing vines due to south-facing slopes, natural spring water and free-draining sandy topsoil.
There are six varieties of grapes being grown from the cultivated land, with vines stretching as far as the eye can see from the visitor centre, built in 2024 due to the level of demand from customers wanting to buy wine and go on vineyard tours.
One of the main offerings from the vineyard is a tour and wine tasting for £25 per person, which includes four samples of the still wines, one sample of one of the sparkling wines, a charcuterie board and cheese selection, both from Shropshire, and a tour of the vineyard and wine talk.
The grapes include Seyval Blanc, a versatile variety that enjoys the climate and is used to create English Sparkling wines, The Pinot Noir Précoce, which can produce Sparkling white wine along with a Sparkling Rosé, Solaris which creates a crisp and refreshing white wine with notes of tropical fruits and a gorgeous citrus finish, Rondo, which is blended into the Divico variety to create the Rudge Heath red wine, Divico, which produces a heavy, full bodied red wine and Siegerrebe, which has flavours which would suit a single variety white wine or provide some extra flavour to the Nurton Brook wine.
The wines on offer are the Sparkling Wine and Sparking Rosé, The Rudge Heath red from the Divico grape, the Great Moor red from the Pinot Noir Précoce, the Nurton Brook white from the Solaris and the Moor Meadow Rosé.
One thing the vineyard has been doing more work to do is become better noticed in the local community and further afield as it is set in a fairly remote area with no road signs to show where it is, something Steph and Jane said they were working on.
Steph said the vineyard was something of a best kept secret and said the aim was to become less of that best kept secret.
She said: “We have the visitor centre because people were wondering up to the vineyard and saying that they’d like to buy some vine and we didn’t have a counter or any of our wine on display.
“We were really a field with a vineyard on it and we needed somewhere for people to come and buy it as we want more people to know where we are.
“In terms of getting the word out about us, we need more word of mouth and publicity and more people telling other people about us.”
In terms of the appeal of English wine and the celebration of English Wine Week, both Jane and Steph said the key to the success of the wine was the homegrown nature of it.
Jane said: “People like the fact that it is planted and grown in the local area and there are less air miles.
“We’ve just won a Decanter bronze award for our Nurton Brook Solaris and we’ve also won GB awards for gold for our Pinot Noir and for our Solaris again.”
Steph said: “People are looking for good, homegrown produce and we do get a lot of volunteers who come and help with picking the grapes at harvest time, which is good fun whatever the weather.
“This week is the perfect opportunity for people to celebrate English wine and get themselves down to their local vineyard to try something new, and we love doing what we do here.”