While staying in my second home at St Suliac, my daily walk often takes me over the Mont Garot, at 73m the highest peak in the area. My walk takes me past a small local vineyard, the Clos Garot, situated on the south side of the hill, protected by the trees above and overlooking the Rance estuary below, giving an ideal environment for the grapes to grow.

View of the Rance estuary from above the vines at Clos Garot.

Winemaking was introduced in Brittany by the Romans and continued through the Middle Ages by monks. There was a monastery at the top of Mont Garot and the current vineyard is situated on the same site as the local chapter used centuries before. However, the quality of Breton wines was not good and the grapes suffered when the climate cooled and became damper. This led Louis XIV’s Controller-General of Finances, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to discourage viticulture in Brittany and Normandy in favour of growing apples for cider, Calvados and Chouchenn. This ordinance was in place until 2016 when EU legistlation overrode it. Nonetheless, wine production restarted at Mont Garot in 2003 under a local Association. Initially there was only a white wine based on the Chenin Blanc grape, but in 2016 a red was also developed using the Rondo varietal popular in Czechoslovakia and Germany.

This is also one of the main red wine grapes grown at Llanerch Vineyard in the Vale of Glamorgan as it is suited to the temperate maritime climate found in both South Wlaes and Brittany. The association does not sell their wines but is willing to part with them at local markets in St Suliac in exchange for a donation to the Association coffers (10 Euros recommended for a 50cl bottle).

The Romans were also said to have made wine in Wales, a tradition continued by the monasteries until their Dissolution in the late 1530s. Over 300 years later the first modern commercial vineyard in Britain was started in 1875 at the foot of the hill on which Castell Coch stands. Again this is a south facing location sheltered by trees on the hillside above. The vines were planted by Andrew Pettigrew, head gardener to the Marquis of Bute who started his renovation of the medieval castle in the save year. It took 16 years to rebuild the castle but the first white wine was ready for bottling in 1877 and a red followed several years later. It was said that the quality of the vine varied with the Welsh weather, with no wine production in 7 of the 34 years the vineyard was open, but the best years produced an excellent vintage, with  that of 1893 making enough profit to cover the whole duration of wine production at Castell Coch. They also supplied 3,000 bottles for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887, although Punch magazine joked that it took 4 men to drink the wine – “2 to hold the victim down while the third poured it down his throat”.

Grapes were transported from the Vineyard to Cardiff Castle, where Lord Bute had an egrappoir, amechanical wine press, installed in the grounds.

Andrew Pettigrew with the Egrappoir.

Each gallon of grapes required 3.5lbs of cane sugar to sweeten the wine. This was not available during the First World War, so production was halted in 1914. IT never restarted and the vines were uprooted in 1920. The site of the old vineyard is now a par 3 golf course. When the Marquis of Bute ordered the planting of vines in 1873, all wine had to be imported from Europe. In 2020, there were over 700 British wine producers, with 31 of these in Wales, the nearest being Llanerch vineyard at Hensol, which also grows the Rondo variety of red grape on Garth Mountain across the Taff Vale from Castell Coch.