University vineyard cultivates wine - and learning

A university says its own vineyard has not only produced its first wine, but is helping educate students in the process.

Two hectares (five acres) of about 10 different varieties of grapes were planted by Harper Adams University in 2023, on land called Buttery Hill on its campus in Edgmond, Shropshire.

On Thursday, the university will launch its 2024 Buttery Hill Rosé.

Prof Frank Vriesekoop from the university said it could be considered a by-product: "Really, that vineyard is a classroom and a laboratory, but that doesn't mean that we don't try to get a really high-quality product out of that."

"Internally, we have students who are either in agriculture or who have an interest in beverages - we have used the vineyard for those purposes.

"We also have business-related degrees and people who are thinking about what it takes within the agriculture industry to set up new directions."

Vriesekoop said the site had been designed to adapt to the changing British climate.

"Our vineyard... has been set up to be able to deal with the notion that the weather gets warmer and wetter, the global warming aspect," he said.

"We put in some really traditional grape varieties, and really modern grape varieties.

"The really traditional probably struggle a little bit in the longer term with diseases, but the newer ones are pretty much disease-resistant."

As for the wine, this is just the beginning.

"We've got... some rosé, we've got some white, we've got some red, and we've got some sparkling in the pipeline," Vriesekoop said.

Not only has the vineyard been teaching students while the crops have been growing, but it has been shaping education for future cohorts.

"At the moment we're in the process of developing and fine-tuning a whole series of courses related to growing grapes and making wine," he added.

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