St Boswells vineyard: Couple create Scotland's first 'champagne' from old potato field
"We used the first bottle to celebrate our granddaughter's first birthday.”
A couple who created Scotland's first 'champagne' from an old potato field have had their first glass - and say it has a “light and fruity taste”.
Lorna and Trevor Jackson planted 1,000 vines in 2016 after several warm summers due to global warming gave the vines a chance to grow.
They bottled their first crop of 'Borders Bubbly' last year and have now had their initial taste after popping a cork to toast their granddaughter's birthday.
The couple ''jumped up and down'' with happiness at the result, and said the Bubbly boasted a “light and fruity taste”.
Mrs Jackson, 64, said: ''We were just trying to make a product that didn't taste like vinegar, so we're very pleased that we've got a nice product that we think is very drinkable.
"My husband and I were really surprised. We jumped up and down.
"It didn't taste of vinegar, it was really bubbly, and it had a light and fruity taste that will only get better after maturing.
"We used the first bottle to celebrate our granddaughter's first birthday. Our friends and family are very excited - I don't think they were as happy when we were making them dig holes in the ground, but they're very pleased that it's worked."
The couple say the amount of interest in their process has encouraged them to look into producing and selling the wine on a larger scale. They planted their vineyard after they were left with a spare acre-and-a-half scrap of land on their farm in the Scottish Borders.
The site in in St Boswells is Scotland's only outdoor vineyard successfully producing grapes to make wine. And now after eight years, they have used Scottish-grown grapes to create and open their first bottles of 'Borders Bubbly'.
Mrs Jackson said: ''Back in 2016, we had a spare potato field and we were trying to figure out what to put on it. We decided that we might try and see if vines would grow - just to see if they would.
"We bought a thousand and started planting them in the field. It's in the south of Scotland, so we have a good microclimate and we were quite hopeful they would grow.''
The couple enlisted the help of family and friends to dig 1,000 holes to plant their vineyard - and then sought out viticulture courses at Plumpton College to help finesse their process.
They faced some unusual challenges, as they juggled vineyard management with full-time work, while the risk of spring frosts loomed over their heads. But the springs and summers remained warm, and friends and family were on hand to assist.
"We did a lot of digging and had a lot of family members digging by hand," said Mrs Jackson. "Slowly, but surely, we began to put all the posts and wires in to resemble a traditional vineyard, so the vines could grow up the wires.
"It's not under polytunnels or any netting, it's just out in the open to see. We also went on a course to find out how to plant a vineyard - and found out we'd probably done all the right things.
"It was challenging to find the time. I was working full time in the NHS, especially during Covid, so the vines got a bit neglected for a time. The weather was challenging too - there's always the risk of a late frost.
Interested in Scottish heritage? Sign up to our free newsletter here.
"But they started to grow, which was really exciting - and now here we are, eight years later, with a much more established vineyard."
The Jacksons picked around 32 pounds of grapes during their last harvest, which was enough to create eight bottles of their unique product.
The couple quickly became overwhelmed by the amount of interest in their Borders Bubbly - and have been planning ways to make their process more industrial, in the hopes of being able to sell the wine within the next year or two.
READ MORE: Edinburgh council accused of ‘complete incompetence’ after £86m road repair bill revealed
"We're now thinking about our next steps - should we do a bit more and try to make this a commercial product?" said Mrs Jackson.
"We're looking into making a winery and a business plan to make it to the next steps. We're hoping for a better harvest this year - we've been working hard to ensure our vines are more productive this year and we get a better yield so we can make more bottles.
"We need to build something more industrial to make the wine, rather than my feet trampling on them in a garden trough. We need to look at ways to professionalise it and that's what we're looking into now.
"We keep having people want to buy it, but we don't have any commercially available yet. But it's great that there's a demand for it.
"It was initially just a proof of concept to see if we could make a champagne-style wine in the Scottish borders - and we did. It's quite a novel thing - our vineyard in the Borders."
Comments
Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.