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Woodchester Valley Vineyard – How it all started

Woodchester Valley was established in 2007 when a single acre was planted on our Amberley site to assess the suitability of the land for growing vines. Our first vintage, a crisp dry Bacchus was produced from our 2010 harvest. This was followed by a further planting in 2011, with the Woodchester site planted in 2012 (20 acres), and Doverow in 2013 (another 20 acres). Our winery was established in 2016, with our 2016 vintage being the first year we produced our wines on site.

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Our Story

From the first experimental acre of vines planted in 2007 Fiona Shiner threw herself into studying viticulture and learning how to drive a tractor! Despite a disastrously wet first summer, the vineyard grew well and Fiona bought a farm on the hill opposite, gradually planting more vines for still and sparkling wines... 

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Meet the Team

Meet Founder Fiona Shiner and Winemaker Jeremy Mount and the rest of the team and put some faces to the names!

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Our Vineyard

We grow a selection of grape varieties, spread across our three vineyards. The three sites have different soil profiles although are all predominantly limestone. Our Woodchester and Amberley sites are typical of Cotswold brash - shallow soils with a high stone content overlying Oolitic limestone, particularly favourable for our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines. These soils are very free-draining. Our Stonehouse site has a higher clay content and deeper soils well-suited for our Bacchus vines. At all sites, our vines are planted on slopes which are more than gentle but fall short of sheer and face South, East and South-West.

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Area History

Woodchester is home to the world famous Orpheus Roman pavement. This 2,200 sq ft mosaic floor was the centrepiece of a 22 acre palace complex dating from AD 200-400. Our Stonehouse site is on Doverow Hill situated on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment. In the Domesday book of 1086 there were two vineyards recorded in Stonehouse or Stanhus as it was called then.

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