'It was hard to convince anyone you'd got a future in it' - How winery between Wolverhampton and Bridgnorth has grown to producing a million bottles a year
A Wolverhampton wine producer says there is 'no sign' of an end to the surge in interest in English wines, as they gear up to produce a million bottles this year.
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Halfpenny Green Wine Estate have ridden the wave of popularity of English and Welsh wines since planting their first vines in the early 1980's - and have now invested further in their production facilities with a host of new machinery flown in from Tuscany to hit their million bottle target.
It's a far cry from 1983, when farmer and company founder Martin Vickers planted his first half-acre of vines with the unlikely dream of building a vineyard "on a par with continental sites" at a farm near Wombourne in Staffordshire.
But that site now stretches to nearly 30-acres, and as well as growing their own grapes, the firm also processes and presses for other producers from all over the country, employing around 70 people across the business.
Having developed from a small farm operation themselves, the company is also now advising farmers and producers who are just getting started too.
"We've gone from only making our own wine 20 years ago, around 40,000 to 60,000 bottles, up to a million now," said Martin's son, and now owner, Clive Vickers.
