Dudley washes away its old image with a prize red

Dudley in the West Midlands, a town better known for its beers and pork scratchings, has produced an award-winning wine, with the Halfpenny Green 2011 scooping silver in the prestigious Decanter World Wine awards.

The red, made from a Rondo grape, is a fiery 15 per cent proof - an alcohol level normally associated with Provence or Southern Italian wines.

It is grown on the sandstone soil of south-facing slopes of Martin Vickers' farm, which began as a hobby but is now a flourishing business producing seven whites and a sparkling white.

"It was a dry summer that was crowned by a fantastically hot September which helped increased the intensity of sugar levels in the grape," said Mr Vickers, who planted his first vines in 1983.

When he started his was the most northerly vineyard in Britain, but today there are successful producers in Cheshire, Yorkshire and North Wales.

The South Downs is traditionally the home of British viticulture. Such is the growing interest in English wine production that land agents say that a number of famous French champagne houses have been eyeing land in Sussex and Hampshire, at a time of rising demand for champagne from the new rich in China and other emerging economies.

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