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
4,000Vines across both
vineyards
30+Variety and
rootstock trials

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: The Vineyard, Ballyclery, Roscrea, Co. 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

The 2026 planting at Ballyclery is 3,874 vines, alongside the 100 planted at the Ballystanley pilot vineyard in 2024 — 3,974 in all. It is split deliberately: four proven varieties make up 76% of the vineyard, while 22 more are planted in small numbers to find out what else Ireland can ripen.

Core plantings High confidence

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

Solaris1,660
Seyval Blanc575
Madeleine Angevine500
Phoenix200

Around 2,900 vines, three quarters of the 2026 planting

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.

Chardonnay 150
Pinot Noir Precoce 150
Cabaret Noir 120
Pinotin 120
Fleurtai 40
Soreli 40
Pinot Meunier 35
Muscaris 25
Merlot Khorus 21
Cabernet Volos 20
Kersus 20
Leon Millot 20
Marechal Foch 20
Merlot Kanthus 20
Pinot Iskra 20
Rinot 20
Sauvignon Kretos 20
Souvignier Gris 20
VB 32-7 20
Riesel 18
Cabernet Cortis 15
Perle 5

Around 900 vines across 22 varieties

26 grape varieties in total, planted as 35 separate variety-and-rootstock combinations across 6 rootstocks (3309C, 41B, 55B, Fercal, Gravesac, SO4). Rootstocks and clones are not grape varieties in their own right — the same variety is often planted on more than one rootstock so we can see which pairing suits our ground.

Cold tolerance
Disease resistance
Earlier ripening

Why we're trialling so many 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