Meet the Best Friends Who Started a Vineyard in the Heart of Yorkshire
Best friends Sopie and Laura founded Yorkshire vineyard Knotfield Vines with little knowledge of wine making.
When best friends Sophie and Laura from Rawdon village in West Yorkshire first had the idea to establish a vineyard on their home turf, it was clear they were on to something special. ‘It was Sophie’s idea, she’s the founder and I just jumped on board because I couldn’t get past how good an idea it was,’ says Laura.
‘Laura’s being modest,’ says Sophie. ‘We were talking about it, I recognised it was something I absolutely couldn’t do by myself. Laura was like “yeah, we can 100 percent do this together”, which tipped it into reality.’
The result is Knotfield Vines, a two-acre vineyard in the heart of Rawdon, growing three varieties of grape. Initially Sophie and Laura had no experience or knowledge of wine making, other than being fans of the drink. ‘I knew that the English wine industry was one of the fastest growing industries in the UK, which was obviously exciting,’ says Sophie.
‘From our first consultant who came to look at the land, to the people who ended up establishing the vineyard, to the winery who helped us choose what variety to plant, we’ve had lots of people with lots of knowledge all along the way. So, I’d like to think that Laura and I have absorbed a fair bit, but we also have a lot to learn.’
All their wine is made exclusively from grapes grown in the vineyard using traditional methods. Their first release (the now sold-out 2022 vintage, Rawdon Rosé Sparkling) is an effervescent, pink rosé with berry sweetness and a fresh hit of elderflower. The wine has been praised by Michelin-star chef Tommy Banks amongst others, and was awarded a silver medal by Wine GB. ‘We were just delighted,’ says Sophie. ‘It’s the cherry on top, but there is also something so fulfilling about a normal day – down in the vineyard doing work, and not thinking about sales or awards. It’s such a beautiful place and that’s the thing we’re most proud of; everything after that is an extra bonus.’
The existing Yorkshire wine scene has welcomed the addition of Knotfield Vines with open arms. ‘Something nice that we’ve discovered is that everyone’s so generous. There’s no real competition in the English wine industry that we’ve found so far,’ says Laura. ‘We’re not proposing ourselves as competition to some of the English wine greats at all, but they’re all so generous with their help, advice, information and support. It’s such a lovely industry to be a part of.
‘The local community have been amazing too, and we’ve not had to do too much self promotion,’ Laura continues. ‘In terms of getting that initial support for our small batches, we sold out of the first edition within six weeks. Because we’ve got such a small amount, we’re very much on a soft start and we’ve found it easy to gain traction and support. People love Yorkshire things as well, they love things from the North and we’ve definitely had the benefit of that so far.’
It hasn’t all been smooth sailing for Sophie and Laura though, and they’ve had to face plenty of challenges in the start-up of the vineyard. ‘This year, because the rain in May was so bad, we lost half our crop. The flowers are meant to fall off, but the rain prevented this because it made them sticky,’ Laura says.
‘We also had a wasp attack last harvest which wasn’t the best,’ Sophie follows on. ‘It meant there was a mad dash at the end to rush the harvest through, as well as wearing gloves and trousers to not get stung by wasps when they attacked the crop. Those hurdles are how you learn and if you can keep smiling through a wasp attack, you know you’re on to something good.’
Laura adds: ’Our best bet at success is learning as much as we can about caring for the vines and making sure that even when the weather isn’t in our control, we’ve done everything correctly to provide the best yield. We are pretty resilient, hardy individuals so between the pair of us, we can weather the storms that come our way – no pun intended.’
In future, they plan to expand into the Yorkshire foodie scene, without compromising the excellent quality of their wine. ‘Yorkshire is so exciting and diverse for its food and drink output and we want to be completely amongst that, but we’re also keen to preserve the work, love and money that’s gone in to get us to this point,’ says Sophie. ‘We’re so happy that the quality has been recognised for being great and that’s something that we don’t ever want to deviate from. We want to be in collaboration with great foodie people across the region as long as it fits with our ethos, which is female-led quality and celebration.’
They’ll also be releasing their sparkling white, Rawdon Classic, this month, just in time for the festive season. And what exactly should we all be drinking this Christmas, according to the experts? ‘Without a doubt, English sparkling wine,’ says Sophie. ‘Made in the exact same way as Champagne but with grapes grown in England. That’s what we should all be drinking. As a breakfast drink, lunch time drink and celebration drink. There’s nothing more special than a bottle of fizz, especially at Christmas.’
Visit knotfieldvines.com to pre-order Rawdon’s next release in time for Christmas and to find out more about the vineyard.
