The search begins.
Early-on in the process I had little idea about what was needed in practical terms, but I was fairly sure I wanted to find a premises in a part of Oxford that had good foot-fall, particularly from people who might be interested in English wines, and was a building of charm and character. It had been made abundantly clear to me (in the first chat with my consultant) that it was one thing to make a good wine, and quite another to sell it and maintain a viable business plan. On my proposed business model selling to and through third parties, restaurants and merchants, was not going to yield any useable profit. (I’ll cover the business plan in another post.). The upshot of this was that I needed an appealing premises that was in a place where people would want to visit, a place of character that Oxford’s foodies could get to easily, and that was visible to likely consumers.
Oxford, it turns out, does not have a great range of suitable properties. It has no rail arches, its little victorian workshops (few though there were) have been converted into chic residences or arts centres. It does not have the old docks, armouries, power stations, tanneries, empty chapels or pumping houses of my imagination, or none that I could find. Much of Oxford’s interesting buildings are owned by colleges, often sheltering behinds imposing walls. I also came to realise that if any did turn-up they would well out of my budget. I looked at a number of unit in small industrial estates on the edge of town, but they didn’t seem to be the right place if I wanted people to visit - perfect if I was never going to be public facing, primarily selling online, or via third parties, but that was not my project.
My first love - the black-timber lean-to barn might have become a most unsuitable home.
In February 2020 I found a place that I convinced myself was perfect (it wasn’t - more in next post). A small (I mean small) barn with eyebrow-height beams, no water or drainage, and a questionable electrics installation. At least the roof was sound, and it had walls. But the location was ideal - on the edge of an iconic water meadow that was an extremely popular weekend stroll from one of the more foody parts of Oxford, furthermore it was next door to a very popular food pub, and more or less on the banks of the Thames - the Isis here, though ‘Isis winery’ didn’t quite have the ring to it I wanted. It was the country in the city. And as icing on the cake it was the area (and the pub) where Lewis Carroll wrote and first read-aloud the Alice stories. What was not to like? For the owners and agents it was small-fry, and it took a while to get the wheels in motion, but in early March 2020 it was informally agreed that if I took-on the necessary works (water, drainage, power and ‘setting right’) then I’d have an attractive rent package. I started searching for contacts to do the work - and so did Coronavirus! It was clear that with the descending cloak of epidemic and promised lockdown that I was not going to be able to manage the works - perhaps if I knew what I was doing, had plenty of cash and great relations with a construction company; but given none of those things, trying to organise a suitable refit in time to get the kit in for an Autumn harvest was too daunting a prospect. I either had to shelve the idea for a year (which may well have parked it completely) or look for another home. Thankfully I took the latter route - and decided that my Oxford urban winery could be set-up anywhere that was practical and had a bit of kerb appeal. In the first odd weeks of lockdown v.1 I visited a few units, barns and sheds around Oxford. On March 23rd 2020 I found it.
