Have you considered Vines for your land?
Many people will be sitting on land here in the UK, much of which will have zero opportunity for planning permission or upgrading from green belt to brownfield. I know of many people who have forestry for taxation purposes and others may have loaned their land to farmers for crops or livestock. Have you though looked in to what value your land has with regards to planting vines which is a growing trend here in the UK with a fast growth of interest in investments and wine sales.
Growing vines for making wine here in the UK has gone from what many saw as a hobby with a handful of small wine makers in the 1980’s to what is now regarded as some of the best examples of sparkling wines internationally with land now being purchased from Champagne labels themselves – This shows where the UK wine scene is going!
Vineyards are seeing record sales, many are gaining investment from the like of crowdfunding websites and many more looking to expand their size to accommodate the size of the potential English Sparkling Wine holds.
So, what if you have land and you are thinking about planting vines with a look to sell them on to some of the local wine makers? It certainly is very viable option, but it will be down to whether the land you own is suitable for planting vines and growing wine making grapes. It will be the quality of the land which will be the most important factor when it comes to producing grapes, though of course it will also depend on the type of grape that is grown, the way they are looked after, the location, soil type, climate, drainage, wildlife control, orientation of slopes and more… Sounds confusing!
There are varied industry professionals that will of course help you along the way, many will initially assess the land you have (many will know the areas which are best so may tell you point blank that your location is simply not viable). Once it is established you may have a site worth exploring then all of the above will be considered to decide whether it is worth taking forward and finding out costs to plant and maintain vines.
As sales of English Sparkling Wines continue to grow then you should find that a local vineyard will have an interest in securing your grapes (you will need to decide the ROI for this, though the quality of grapes will be a big factor going forward). The maintenance of the vines will be at a cost (or will be against the profits you sells the grapes for) and you need to realise that it may take 3-5 before your vines produce quality grapes to harvest. A good view to take is 10 where if your vines has established themselves and have been producing quality grapes for a local wine maker who has been gaining awards for their wines, then your plot of land will have added value both annually in returns, but also for selling on. There is now approximately 1,500 hectares of vineyards in the UK.
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