Lusca Vineyard, Rush, Co Dublin, Ireland

David Llewellyn has had an interest in growing plants, particularly food plants, from an early age. Upon finishing school, he studied horticulture both at Warrenstown Horticultural College and at University College Dublin. He also gained a lot of experience while working in various vineyards in Germany, which he first visited in 1986 and returns to regularly, his latest visit being in September 2018.

David set up his first fruit growing enterprise in 1999. However, not coming from a farming background, and not owning any land, it was difficult to set up a business which by nature requires land as the first prerequisite. So, for the first few years, he managed by working and living on various rented premises, until 2002 when he acquired a small plot of a few acres of land near Lusk, County Dublin, where he now lives with his family. David immediately set about planting his apple orchard and vineyard. In 2010 the Llewellyns had the opportunity to extend their holding by an additional three acres and they added to their range of fruit production by planting pear and cherry trees, and strawberries.

In the beginning, they derived their main income from only apples, and bit by bit they progressed into producing their own apple juice, cider, apple cider vinegar and balsamic vinegar.

David spent many years testing various grape varieties and their suitability for tolerating the Irish climate. In 2006 he started selling a limited quantity of his Irish produced Lusca wine. The entire wine-making process is carried out at the vineyard in Lusk, from picking to pressing, fermenting, maturing and bottling. The wine is made exclusively from their own grapes. They use a very simple traditional method for the vinification, avoiding the use of high-tech filters or other equipment. The wine clears naturally, and it is all bottled and labelled by hand.