About
Woodchester Valley Vineyard – How it all started
Our Story
From the first experimental acre of vines planted in 2007 Fiona Shiner threw herself into studying viticulture and learning how to drive a tractor! Despite a disastrously wet first summer, the vineyard grew well and Fiona bought a farm on the hill opposite, gradually planting more vines for still and sparkling wines...
Meet the Team
Meet Founder Fiona Shiner and Winemaker Jeremy Mount and the rest of the team and put some faces to the names!
Our Vineyard
We grow a selection of grape varieties, spread across our three vineyards. The three sites have different soil profiles although are all predominantly limestone. Our Woodchester and Amberley sites are typical of Cotswold brash - shallow soils with a high stone content overlying Oolitic limestone, particularly favourable for our Pinot Noir and Chardonnay vines. These soils are very free-draining. Our Stonehouse site has a higher clay content and deeper soils well-suited for our Bacchus vines. At all sites, our vines are planted on slopes which are more than gentle but fall short of sheer and face South, East and South-West.
Area History
Woodchester is home to the world famous Orpheus Roman pavement. This 2,200 sq ft mosaic floor was the centrepiece of a 22 acre palace complex dating from AD 200-400. Our Stonehouse site is on Doverow Hill situated on the edge of the Cotswold escarpment. In the Domesday book of 1086 there were two vineyards recorded in Stonehouse or Stanhus as it was called then.