A REDDITCH company has become the toast of France – after winning a silver medal at an international wine event in Epernary – in the heart of Champagne country.
Arrow Valley Vineyards only started bottling its sparkling wine two seasons ago after spending years finding a grape that would thrive in Redditch’s heavy clay soil.
And owner, Latvian logistics magnate Loof Lipra, who’s company’s UK headquarters are in Washford, admits that the warmer summers of the last decade have helped.
“We’re absolutely delighted with this award – we’re really putting English sparkling wines – and Redditch – on the map,” said Mr Lipra, who admitted he had to work backwards to get to the root of the industry.
“There’s no doubt that the weather has helped and with English wines fast gaining a hold in France we’re confident this can become an important export industry.”
Redditch has a long forgotten history of wine production – although the last time the juice from the long-lost ‘Red Ditch’ grape flowed is nearly 500 years ago.
Vines were first cultivated on the banks of the River Arrow by the Cistercian monks who founded Bordesley Abbey back in the 12th Century.
The wine industry flourished in the Middle Ages, when the climate was warmer, with wines from Redditch regularly being sent to the court of English kings.
However with the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, Bordesley Abbey, its monks, and its history of wine growing culture were lost – until now.
“We’re hoping to set up a deal with a leading supermarket chain to stock our product so the people of Redditch can enjoy their own drop of local homegrown wine,” said Mr Lipra.
Until then, residents will have to content themselves with gazing on the vineyards that stretch for miles along the Arrow from Bordesley Abbey.
