A vintage diversification story: meet the CLA members who transformed their sheep farm into a vineyard
James and Susan Kinsey-Jones are at the vanguard of the Welsh wine revolution. We take a trip to their vineyard for a closer look at their diversification journey from sheep to Solaris grapes
It’s a place name that deserves an exclamation mark! Whinyard Rocks sits close to the Wales-England border on a farm where vines now rule the roost on land where sheep were once the prime source of revenue.
The New Radnor vineyard, flanked by towering Lombardy poplars, is run by two rural ‘rock stars’ who proudly sing the praises of rural enterprise and producing natural wines. James and Susan Kinsey-Jones have a clear vision for the future of their farm – and it’s one in which diversification plays a key role.
The farm’s uplands still operate as a traditional Welsh hill farm, only this time the sheep grazing on a hillside (which includes the geographical rock formation which lends its name to the farm) are there ‘on licence’ from other farmers.
From sheep to Solaris
On the lowland part of the farm, the couple now have nine varieties of grapes growing in vineyards which are quietly being expanded year by year.
The couple operate a successful holiday let (the fairytale Highbrook Cottage), with work continuing on a second cottage to add to a growing portfolio that will soon include three timber-framed cabins alongside the main vineyard.
Susan has also added a cut-flower growing business to the mix, so this is a farm which operates to a totally different rhythm from the one started by James’s great-grandfather back in 1913.
James, 44, explains: “When my father ran the farm, we had about 3,000 sheep, so it was a very busy operation.”
The total farm is 550 acres, 180 of which is lowland; the rest being upland including a 120-acre patch of SSSI land. “I grew up in the middle of all this farming – and then I did the obvious thing and disappeared to London, not following in the farming footsteps, but doing biochemistry and life sciences.
“I was working in science funding at the Wellcome Trust – a big organisation with unlimited cash to spend on research. It was really interesting. But I was still slightly unsatisfied by it and yearned to do something different that I had more ownership over.”
James’s parents were getting a little bit older by this stage. And Susan and James noticed that every time they went on holiday they ended up going to a vineyard.
“This is probably 10 years ago and I thought, well, maybe it’s possible to do a vineyard here,” says James. “And, obviously, the sector is starting to emerge a little bit more in Wales. When we started planting nine years ago, I think there were about 20 vineyards. Today, there are about 60 in Wales.
“In the UK, there’s around 1,100 to 1,200. So, it’s really, really expanding, especially in the south-east, where it’s getting extremely professional and very big scale, which we’re not.”
Science, marketing and AI
Susan, 40, saw the potential in Whinyard Rocks after a successful career working in marketing in museums and galleries.
“My marketing work moved into ethical food and I was spending a lot of time working on online marketplaces and going out to farms and interviewing farmers about how they make their own products and how they help look after the planet,” she says. “So James then suggested making our own go of it.”
Wearing a scientist hat (with an interest in developing trends in AI) has helped James develop his natural wines. The business hat has also come in handy, with some help from the CLA.
I was doing some planning for the future and the CLA were very helpful. One of their advisers spent more than an hour on the phone and wrote up a detailed report for us
“He suggested an approach called the Balfour test [a set of legal criteria used to determine if a diversified estate or business qualifies for business property relief from UK inheritance tax]. Something like that was new to us, but obviously a big help moving forward.”
If at first you don't succeed...
They can look back and chuckle at it now, but James and Susan’s hopes for a first crop of grapes in 2019 were crushed by his cousin’s sheep. James recalls: “We were hoping for our first harvest. But I think there was a thunderstorm one night. We had an electric fence around the vines, but that blew and my cousin’s sheep ‘broke in’.
“It was awful. There were no leaves left and the sheep chewed the trunks of the vines. They basically stripped the vineyard.
“I think we’ve still got a bit of post-traumatic stress disorder about the whole thing.”
James chuckles and adds that he’s forgiven his cousin. He also reveals he is not against the idea of allowing sheep into the vineyard – just the right sort of grazers!
“Apparently, Shropshire sheep will do the job as they won’t chew the bark and they will just nibble the grass between the vines.
“I’ve started talking to members of the Shropshire Sheep Breeders Association, so I’m keen to find someone who might want to graze their sheep in the vineyard.”
What's available at Whinyard Rocks?
For more information about the wines and holiday accommodation, go to whinyardrocks.com.
