Wine from Dinas Powys: Cock Hill

A quality wine is made from grapes grown on a hillside between Dinas Powys and Cardiff. Cock Hill is labelled as ‘a dry white produced from a blend of handpicked grapes selected from six varieties of cool-climate vines’. The grapes are grown on the Bryn Ceiliog [Cock Hill in English] Vineyard, Beggan Farm, Leckwith, Vale of Glamorgan. The wine is crisp and fruity, with apple and elderflower aromas. It is bottled for Cock Hill by Three Choirs Vineyards in Newent, Gloucester.

There have been Welsh vineyards since Roman times, although a decline set in around the 17th Century. Lord Bute revived the tradition, planting vines on the slopes around Castell Coch and pressing the grapes in Cardiff Castle. By 1893, annual production was recorded as 12,000 bottles. Production declined and was stopped by WWI. Recently, vineyards have increased in the UK, favoured by the generally milder conditions bought on by climate change, and there are currently around 20 in Wales.

The vineyard at Leckwith, first planted in 1998 and containing 2,000 vines, is run by Ian Symonds, on a family farm whose main business is Welsh Black beef. The wine has been given approval by the UKVA (United Kingdom Vineyards Association) to be labelled as a ‘Welsh Regional Wine’.

We buy our Cock Hill in the village stores in Dinas Powys. It is on sale in a couple of other outlets and is served in some of the top restaurants in the area. We have had bottles of the 2006 production recently and have found it reliably excellent, and comparable to good quality crisp England whites. It's ideal to serve to guests along with other local produce; the vineyard being only a mile or so from our house in Dinas Powys.

References:
Peter Finch (2009), 'Real Cardiff Three: The Changing City', Seren, Bridgend, Wales, Pages156-159.

Beggan Farm, http://www.graigfarm.co.uk/idwal_symonds.html