Growing Wine Grapes in the Heart of Ireland

Two vineyards, one live field trial: learning what grows well in Irish conditions, one season at a time.

2024Pilot vineyard planted
at Ballystanley
2026Major planting begins
at Ballyclery
3,300Vines going into
the ground in 2026
30Grape varieties, allowing
for rootstocks

Two vineyards

One vineyard to learn,
one to grow

The pilot vineyard asks the questions. Ballyclery is where the answers are put into the ground.

Main vineyard

Ballyclery Vineyard

Our main commercial vineyard, in South Offaly, where major planting began in 2026 and our experimental varietal programme is under way.

Where: Ballyclery, Roscrea, County Offaly
Planted: Major planting from 2026
Role: Establishing the working vineyard

Pilot vineyard

Ballystanley Pilot Vineyard

Planted in 2024 to help us understand which varieties suit Irish growing conditions before committing to large-scale planting.

Planted: 2024
Role: Testing varieties and Irish growing conditions

Our grape varieties

Confidence and
experimentation

Our 2026 planting is split deliberately in two: proven performers make up most of the vineyard, while small plantings of newer varieties test what might be possible in Ireland.

Core plantings High confidence

Varieties we have reasonable confidence can survive Irish conditions and ripen reliably. They form the backbone of the vineyard.

Solaris1,650
Madeleine Angevine400
Phoenix200
Seyval Blanc200
Cabernet Noir125
Pinotin100

Vines planted in 2026

Experimental & PIWI trials High potential

New-generation PIWI (fungus-resistant) and cold-climate varieties, each planted in small quantities. We expect most to struggle — but if two or three perform well, that could matter for Irish viticulture.

Muscaris 50
Cabernet Cortis 25
Souvignier Gris 25
Marechal Foch 25
Leon Millot 25
VB 32-7 25
Cabernet Volos 20
Fleurtai 20
Kersus 20
Merlot Kanthus 20
Merlot Khorus 20
Sauvignon Kretos 20
Soreli 20
Pinot Skra 20

Cold tolerance
Disease resistance
Earlier ripening

Why we're trialling 30 varieties

Green grape clusters hanging among vine leaves

A young grape cluster forming on a newly planted vine

A young vine with its handwritten variety label

How we're learning

A live field trial,
recorded season by season

Ireland is still an emerging wine region with little historical data, so we measure, observe and share what we find. The Journal holds the detail.

Weather
Rainfall, frost and storms, tracked through the year by our on-site weather station.
The weather station
Soil
How the ground behaves through wet winters and dry spells.
Four months of rain
Variety performance
Budburst timing and yield consistency, variety by variety.
The variety trial
Disease
Which varieties resist disease in Irish conditions.
Ripening
Whether each variety ripens reliably in our season.
Brix
Measuring sugar levels in the grapes as they ripen.
Data collection
Building the kind of dataset that doesn't yet exist for Irish wine.
Choosing the site
Annual observation
Comparing each year with the last, over the next three to five years.
Read the Journal