Vineyard
Growing Grapes on Ireland's East Coast
On Ireland’s east coast in County Louth, Fairy Trees is helping to develop a new chapter in Irish viticulture. Our vineyard near Dunleer extends across approximately 20 acres and is home to around 28,000 vines.
The vineyard lies in a cool maritime environment shaped by Ireland’s Atlantic climate. Growing grapes here requires patience, careful vineyard management and a willingness to adapt traditional winegrowing knowledge to local conditions.
For us, the vineyard is where everything begins. It is the foundation of our wines and an essential part of the wider Fairy Trees story – from growing grapes and making wine to exploring what those grapes can become through blending, maturation and distillation.
Our vineyard is planted with a diverse selection of grape varieties chosen to explore their potential in Ireland’s cool maritime climate.
These include Solaris, Johanniter, Chardonnay, Cabernet Cortis, Artaban, Vidoc, Floreal, Bronner, Sauvignac and Souvignier Gris, alongside other varieties under evaluation.
Some are established European varieties, while others have been developed for cooler or more challenging growing conditions. This diversity allows us to learn from every vintage and to identify the varieties best suited to our vineyard, our climate and the styles of wine we want to create.
Each harvest adds to our understanding of how vines respond to the Irish environment and helps shape the future direction of Fairy Trees.
Winegrowing in Ireland has its own rhythm. Throughout the year, the vineyard demands careful pruning, canopy management, grass and weed control, protection of the fruit and close observation of the weather and ripening conditions.
As harvest approaches, decisions are guided by the maturity and condition of the grapes rather than by a fixed calendar. The fruit is harvested when we believe it has reached the right balance for the style we want to produce.
At Fairy Trees, we combine our Irish vineyard experience with generations of French winemaking knowledge. We continue to learn from each growing season, adapting our viticulture and winemaking to the particular conditions of our site.
The result is not an attempt to reproduce another wine region in Ireland, but to discover what our own vineyard can express.
At Fairy Trees, the grape is not viewed only as the beginning of wine. It can also be the starting point for a spirit.
Our approach is inspired by a tradition deeply rooted in the Cognac region of France, where for centuries winegrowers have grown their own grapes, made wine, distilled it, blended their eaux-de-vie and matured their own brandies in oak.
We are bringing that same philosophy to Ireland: from vineyard to wine, and from wine to spirit.
Wine can be double-distilled using the traditional Charentaise method to create grape spirit, which is then matured in oak to become our Irish Grape Brandy. Our grape brandy is also used with fresh Irish grape must to create Dawn of Dee, our Irish Wine Liqueur.
It is a continuation of the vineyard story – exploring more of what can be created from grapes while bringing together Irish origins and generations of French wine and spirits expertise.
