red wine grape choices

[red157]

hi, I'm looking for advice on a outdoor variety of grape vine, for producing red wine in the bristol area.
Many thanks

[Deltawhiskey]

Regent and Rondo are good disease free varieties for the UK. With global warming even Cabernet may be possible in the future. I am growing Regent in Southampton. A good source of information is Winegrowers supplies. Just type into your browser and it will take you to their web site. Derek the owner is also a very helpful guy.
David

[red157]

thanks for th adivce, I will check out Derek's site

[hop-a-long]

I can recommend Regent too, planted a vine here in Somerset against a south facing wall and it has grown really well. I think it's the best variety you'll find in a local garden centre anyway- it's early (picked mine at end of August last year), disease resistant, and good quality for wine. Grapes are a bit small and pippy for eating but still nice though.

Best of luck with it anyway!

[red157]

many thanks

[Thelma Sanders]

I grow Regent but it is in a greenhouse. I picked all the grapes this weekend as the local wasps decided they were ripe

[Deltawhiskey]

Outdoors Regent will ripen later and should not be bothered by wasps. Last year everything ripened very early down here and the wasps were so bad I decided to harvest early. I had wasp traps hanging everywhere. Looked at using something earlier in the year like poisoned cat food on top of my trellis that they would take back to the nest. The wasps didn’t go for the playing cat food so I gave it up.