Farmer hopes for good vintage

Rows of grapes are not what you would expect to see on a typical English farm.

But farmer Mr William Booth, 56, not satisfied with staple crops, decided to recreate the feel of a Bordeaux vineyard within his Brant Broughton estate.

Mr Booth started the venture in 2008 planting the 11/2-acre vineyard on Mill Lane with several grape varieties including regent, bacchus, and pinot noir.

In its first year the crop produced 100 litres of red wine, which Mr Booth only recently opened to sample.

This year Mr Booth, who has called his wine Brant Edge, has expanded and aims to produce a further 100 litres of red wine, 50 litres of rosé, as well as 50 litres of cider from local apples.

Mr Booth said: “This all started off as a bit of hobby and has grown from there. I am delighted with the quality of the wine we have managed to produce. Well it certainly tastes drinkable to me.

“The plan is to eventually start selling the wine because we have already had a lot of interest.

“In a few years I intend to give up farming and do more conservation work and put more time into the vineyard.”

All of the wine is produced on site, with Mr Booth converting a farm shed into a fully equipped state-of-the-art winery.

Mr Booth, who has been on the farm for more than 25 years, said: “Unfortunately I can’t sell any of what I have produced because there are a number of hoops I have to jump through to meet EU regulations, but over the next year I hope to have that all sorted.”