Our search for the perfect place to grow grapes to produce cool climate wines led us to Kilham, a quintessentially Yorkshire Wolds village that lies on the line of a Roman road from York to Bridlington.
Kilham is a village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated about 5 miles north-east of Driffield, known locally as the Capital of the Wolds.
On our eight-acre site in the heart of the ‘Big Skies’ area made famous by David Hockney’s paintings, we’re growing Pinot Noir and Seyval grapes to make delicious sparkling Yorkshire wine called Erihskroy after the registered Kennel Club name of the Mason senior family’s Irish Wolfhounds.
To the south of Kilham, there is evidence of a Romano-British settlement from the 4th century in the village of Rudston. Given that wine was ever-present in daily Roman life, we have a notion that we’re not the first to produce wine in this area and that the Romans beat us to it 17 centuries ago, although we doubt whether they were producing sparkling Yorkshire wine!
