Our story started back in 2011, it followed a discussion in a pub (where all the best ideas start) that then led to Amber Valley Wines beginning its unique story. Read on and find out how we got here and where we are going. 

Every successful product is the fruit of hard work and this applies especially to a vineyard! Our Journey started with a chance meeting of minds between Barry Lewis & Duncan Mercer in 2011 that led to a few vines being planted on an allotment site that year, just before acquiring or planting our main vineyards.  

Barry & Duncan realised they were on to something and quickly planted the first proper vineyards at Doehole and Back Lane in 2012. We produced our first vintage in 2014 for release in 2015 - an aromatic and delicious white and a luscious and dry rose - these were named Lindway White and Lindway Pink, both of which were produced up to 2016.  

It hasn't always been easy. Growing vines in the UK is always going to be challenging and here in the northern climes of Derbyshire it will be particularly so. For example we planted our vines in some pretty challenging snowy conditions in April 2012, also one of the wettest years on record, and then the harvest of 2017 was a write off - thanks to the devastating frosts of that spring. The wines take their name, Lindway, from the neighbouring fishing lakes next door to the vineyard at Doehole, which afforded some protection to the young vines in the hard frosts we saw in Spring of 2014.

In 2018 Duncan took the decision to leave the business and concentrate on other projects he was involved in.  Barry took on the whole business and now runs it with his family.  Barry and his wife Katharine already owned the land so this was an easy decision.  

After the disastrous harvest of 2017 we bounced back with a great harvest in 2018 and will be launching a new range of wines in 2019.  We have also produced our first sparkling wine from this vintage, which will be released in 2021.

Our vineyards are still young, really just coming into their own now and able to produce consistently decent crops.  That said though, we will, in common with many UK vineyards, be a low yielding vineyard, which we believe translates into hard won quality.  

We love where we live, work and have our vineyards and that to us is something we need to work to protect.  We want to work in harmony with the landscape and nature and so we grow and care for our vines using mainly organic methods (to be clear we don't claim to be organic but we try not to use herbicides or chemical pesticides) to protect the soils, flora and fauna around us. 

Our plans for the future include building a winery and tasting rooms and other facilities at our Back Lane site in the village of Wessington, and again, we aim to be as sustainable as possible and hope to get 80% of our power needs supplied from micro generation on-site.  

To find out more about where we came from, where we are going and what we aim to produce book a tour with us! We have scheduled tours running from May to October and we'd love to talk to you.