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The Tasting Room

We are over the moon that we can finally announce that we have received full planning permission to extend our Tasting Room. After completing the existing Tasting Room in 2019, we could not have anticipated the interest and demand it would bring for both our vineyard events, and weddings. During 2020, we spent a lot of time reflecting on our progress and realised we had so much more to offer.

The extension will more than double our undercover space, enabling us to host a vast array of events here at the vineyard, all year round. It will provide us with our own fully functional kitchen, indoor toilets and our own wine cellar door area. Frequent feedback we have received from visitors is that they would like to be able to stay and enjoy the views with a glass of Yorkshire’s finest after their tours… we listened… and soon you will be able to! Accessibility has been key in its design, meaning all visitors will be able to take in the full vineyard experience of the views, vines and more.

The Winery

It was always our ambition to provide some of ‘The Norths’ finest wines. To make good wine, you need good grapes. From day one we were able to adapt our farming skills to grow the best possible fruit. Five years in to producing award winning wines with our grapes and we are finally ready to take the next step in our journey, as wine makers.

Up until now, our wine makers at Half Penny Green have done an amazing job for us, and although we are going to take the leap, we will be doing it gradually. In 2021, we aim to make some small batches of wine under the close eye of a consultant to ensure it goes to plan. We will then grow and develop our production on-site as the years progress.

The project is a huge investment and has only been possible with a grant from the Humber LEP, who are contributing towards the build. Not only will this mean we are able to control the whole process from plant to bottle, but it will enable us to reduce our carbon footprint and, importantly, grow our team!

Going Green

Taking care of the environment is a core value of our Buisness. Since owning the farm, we have planted over 10 acres of woodland, nearly 50% of our land grows renewable energy (short rotation coppice willow) and the rest of our land that isn’t under vine, is organic meadow.

We take the same pride in caring for the vines as we have in our land. Although we are not fully organic, we use as few chemicals as possible when caring for the vines and stopped using pesticides a long time ago on any of our crops. Where possible, we collect rain water to spray with and during the summer months carefully maintain the boundaries of the fields for the wildlife that call our fields home by planting an array of crops from sun flowers to wild flowers. You may also notice our hedgerows are left to grow wild and bushy. This is to provide the birds with berries to eat and bushes to live in.

One of the biggest waste products in the wine industry is packaging. In 2020 we took the decision to remove the foils from our sparkling wines. A small step, but a step in the right direction and one less thing that ends up in landfill.

As we bring production in house (our winery is currently under construction) we will also be drastically reducing our carbon footprint by reducing the amount of travel we do back and forth from our contract wine maker. This will also allow us to begin to experiment with different packaging and wine making techniques.

We know there is still along way to go, but every small step is a large step in the right direction.