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Wales — A New Frontier for British Wine

No longer content to be a footnote in the story of UK wine, Wales is creating its own distinctive regional identity.

Range of White Castle wines on table

It could be argued that Wales, a land of misty hills and maritime influence, is where British wine began. Britain’s first commercial vineyard was planted in 1875 by Lord Bute’s head gardener, Andrew Pettigrew, near Castell Coch, just outside Cardiff on the south coast. Several grape varieties were tested but it was Gamay Noir that was the most successful. Initially the wine was sold at the Castle gardens and through The Angel Hotel in Cardiff until, in 1897 London wine merchant, Hatch, Mansfield and Co. was appointed. Wine production ceased in 1914, when the First World War disrupted supplies of the quantities of sugar needed to make the wine and the vines grubbed up by 1920.

Dan and Lucy Alder with their son Rowan at The Dell Vineyard with produce

Viticulture in Wales isn’t easy; frost, variable seasons and disease pressure are all major challenges for growers. However vineyards have been planted here since 1979, when Glyndwr Vineyard was established in the Vale of Glamorgan. There are now over 50 with more modern plantings fully embracing climate-adapted hybrids and low-intervention techniques, forging a distinctive wine identity that reflects Wales’s cooler climate, dramatic changes in altitude, varied soils, and maritime influence.

White Castle in Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, is one of the region’s earlier success stories. It was planted in 2009 by Robb and Nicola Merchant, with a vision to produce 100 per cent Welsh wine known for quality and individuality. Their still red wines have helped put Wales on the map – the 2018 Pinot Noir Précoce Reserve won Gold at the Decanter World Wine Awards in 2021 – but they are also responsible for producing Wales’s first fortified wine. Similar in style to port, with an ABV of 19.5%, only one barrel of the wine, made from Regent grapes and aged for four years, is released per year – the first was in 2018.

Image of White Castle Vineyards

A decade after their original plantings, in 2019 the Merchants put down 1,000 Cabernet Franc vines. 'With temperatures changing, we looked at the Loire and decided to plant Cabernet Franc with a long-term vision, taking vintages as they happen in the meantime,' Robb Merchant said. In 2022 White Castle released its first still Cabernet Franc – a wine that hints at the region’s potential for structured reds in a warming climate.

At fellow Monmouthshire vineyard, The Dell, Dan and Lucy Alder planted 5,000 Pinot Noir and Solaris vines on their family farm between the Usk and Wye Valleys in 2022, and have recently added a further two acres of Cabaret Noir, Pinot Meunier and Souvignier Gris. In previous years they have blended their crop with grapes from 25-year-old Pinot Noir, Seyval Blanc and Phoenix vines they lease nearby to make still wines. Working with so many grape varieties has meant their blending decisions vary year-on-year.

'Because we are not mass producers, we love that our wine reflects that particular year,' says Lucy. 'We find that our customers look forward to seeing how each vintage will change and these subtle changes and decisions are half the fun of growing in Wales.'

Further south, the Vale of Glamorgan – a southern area which hugs a 20-mile stretch of the Bristol Channel – is affectionately referred to as the Côtes du Glamorgan because of its higher-than-average sunshine and temperatures.

Hensley-Bâch vineyard, a small one-acre plot of Rondo and Cabernet Cortis planted by Alex Griem, Dominic Dohert and Rob Cooper (owners of wine merchant Chilled & Tannin) has this autumn [2025] released its first wines from the 2024 vintage.

Griem said the original plan was to plant the white grape Solaris alongside Rondo but due to scarce stocks decided on Cabernet Cortis. This is a PIWI (fungal resistant) crossing of Cabernet Sauvignon with Solaris, known for its crunchy dark fruit characters.

'We’re finding our feet on style – last vintage went into old oak to mellow out tannins and is Beaujolais style. From the 2025 vintage, we’re thinking of making a Claret-style, early release wine with short skin contact in stainless steel.'

Those who have been able to plant Solaris consider it could be Wales’s hero white variety. Montgomery Vineyard’s still Solaris is the critic Matthew Jukes’s ‘favourite Welsh version of the grape’, while at nearby Anchor Hill and Whinyeard Rocks, it is used to create everything from orange (skin-contact) wines to col-fondo (sparkling bottled on lees).

North Wales is also coming to the notice of critics. Vale Vineyard, situated in Denbighshire’s Vale of Clwyd, benefits from a micro-climate with lower rainfall thanks to a rainshadow created by the Clwydian Range mountains to the east and the Hiraethog mountains to the west. Vale’s Robin Goch blend of Rondo, Cabernet Noir and Divico won the trophy for Best Alternative Red at the 2025 WineGB Awards.

While there isn’t yet a style of wine that is recognisably ‘Welsh’, producers here are keen to experiment and adapt, and are ensuring that Wales is increasingly seen as a serious and commercially significant wine region.

Rebecca Pitcairn is a wine writer and host of The English Wine Diaries podcast, an interview series that delves into the lives of people in the world of English wine and beyond. Her work uncovering lesser known grape varieties, wine regions and producers, both here and overseas, has seen her named in Drinks Retailing’s Top 100 Most Influential in Drinks and win the specialist category in the Freelance Journalism Awards 2025. Rebecca is the wine columnist at Sussex Life magazine and has written for publications including Sainsbury’s magazine, Delicious. British Travel Journal, Harpers, Drinks Retailing and Club Oenologique.

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