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SHROPSHIRE VINEYARDS
  • Home
  • About
  • Terroir
  • Vineyards
    • In the beginning
    • Recent additions...
    • Our friends in the north
    • The beautiful south
    • On the border
  • Grapes
  • Wine Online
    • Tasting Notes
  • Contact

Our friends in the north...

Jones's (Colehurst)

High Street, Market Drayton TF9 1QB
Phone: 01630 652042
Lat / Long: 52.877291, -2.502514
Vineyard description: Half of the site is a freely draining south facing slope with loamy sand and gravel soils. Some 4,500 vines cover 1.5 hectares. (Soilscape 6).
Grapes: Cabernet Franc, Madeleine Angevine, Phoenix, Pinot Noir.
Website: https://jonescoffeehouse.wordpress.com/vineyard/
UPDATE 24/07/2020: The vineyard at Colehurst just outside Market Drayton mainly serves to supply Jones's retail outlets in Market Drayton and Whitchurch. As such it is a private vineyard with no tours or public visits at present.
The wines, largely taking the Jones's brand in the coffee houses, appear under the Colehurst name at external outlets, such as the Battlefield 1403 Farm Shop north of Shrewsbury.
Like most other vineyards in Shropshire, Colehurst was hit quite badly by frost in April which cost them most of the first bud on the vines. It's a recurring theme across the county, north to south.
Currently, the vineyard has an offer on a tasting box, which is available for home delivery.
Contact them by email, phone or social media and they will arrange payment over the phone and delivery. Priced at £49.95, which is a discount of 16 per cent on the retail price, you can chose your favourite and customise future orders.  Their red is currently sold out, although there is more maturing in Oak.  Minimum order a box of 6 or 2 sparkling. Tel 07783278090, email; [email protected]"
​I'll be reviewing a couple of wines from the Colehurst range in the near future.

Jones's Shop
The vineyard's busy and atmospheric coffee shop in Market Drayton.

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Colemere

Ellesmere SY12 0LQ
01939 270945
Lat / Long: 52.895371, -2.836540
Vineyard description: 0.8 hectares. Freely draining, low fertility, slightly acid loamy soil (Soilscape 6).
Grapes: Regent, Rondo, Solaris.
Website: http://www.colemerevineyard.co.uk
Rob and Laura Windsor planted their first vines seven years ago and were hoping to send out their first wines to customers at Easter, only to be delayed by consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic.
​Check back on their website for further details, or why not subscribe to their newsletter?
You can also become a Friend of Colemere Vineyard for a subscription of £120 per year. Check out the details on the Friends page of their website. 

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Colemere - picture Google Maps.

Commonwood

Shrewsbury SY4 5SJ
01939 236193
Lat /Long: 52.850157, -2.758914
Vineyard description: Slowly permeable seasonally wet slightly acid but base-rich loamy and clayey soils across around 1 hectare, with room to grow. (Soilscape 18).
Grapes: Monarch, Phoenix, Regent, Rondo.
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Commonwood-Vineyard-123119395079434/
Corinne Goddard
Corinne Goddard taking Commonwood's wine out to the public.
Commonwood Vineyard is situated a couple of miles outside the small north Shropshire town of Wem, which is most famous for sweet peas and the radio journalist Sybil Ruscoe, who grew up in the town.
Maybe soon, however, it’s also going to be known for the ‘do-it-yourself’ wines made at Commonwood.
Owners Alan and Corinne Goddard are already claiming a first for their expanding venture, the first commercial planting of the red grape Monarch in a British commercial vineyard.
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Commonwood - picture Google Maps.
They have around 1850 vines, growing on roughly a hectare of land surrounded almost entirely by trees and hedges and, bravely, they make the wines on a small on-site winery. It’s part of a wider self-contained almost ‘Good Life’ existence where pigs, sheep and chickens jostle for attention.
Alan and Corinne say they run the vineyard on ‘organic’ lines, while not officially designated as such, and they’re aiming to become carbon neutral with the aid of solar panels and wood-fired heating for water.
Currently they’re producing reds and whites and have a plan for bottling rose in the future.

Tern Valley

Market Drayton TF9 3PU
01630 639688
Lat / Long: 52.881034, -2.547246.
Vineyard description: Slightly acid loamy and clayey soils with impeded drainage over 1.7 hectares. (Soilscape 8).
Grapes: Dornfelder, Phoenix, Regent, Rondo.
Website: http://www.ternvalleywine.co.uk/index.html

Anyone who has seen the tangled mess that is the remains of the Tern Valley vineyard must wonder what happened to Shropshire wine pioneer Bob O'Brien's dream of developing 'a sustainable local rural business with a respect for traditional vineyard practices combined with a modern approach to wine making and, most importantly – a passion for creating wines that provide pure pleasure.'
Former computer scientist Bob was one of many inspired to join in the growth of UK viticulture by David Millington at Wroxeter.

The vineyard was planted in the spring of 2004 and the trellis system for the 2400 vines, consisting of Dornfelder, Rondo and Regent reds and Phoenix white, went in two years later.
The first Tern Valley wines were bottled at Halfpenny Green in October 2006.
I don't know what happened after 2006 and the website that chronicled the short rise and fall of Tern Valley has recently gone 'off-air'. I'll leave the URL visible in case someone finds it archived somewhere.
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Tern Valley - picture Google Maps.
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  • Home
  • About
  • Terroir
  • Vineyards
    • In the beginning
    • Recent additions...
    • Our friends in the north
    • The beautiful south
    • On the border
  • Grapes
  • Wine Online
    • Tasting Notes
  • Contact