WINES produced at a vineyard in Oxfordshire will hit supermarket shelves thanks to a new deal as England wakes up to the quality of the home-grown product.

Brightwell Vineyard wines, grown and made on a 16-acre site just eight miles south of Oxford, will be stocked by Midcounties Co-operative Food, which operates 52 stores across the county.

Vineyard owners Bob and Carol Nielsen believe the new deal is a boost for English wine, the quality of which people in this country are only beginning to realise.

Mrs Nielsen, 60, said of the deal: “It’s absolutely fantastic and it’s getting us out into the wider community.

"We sell to a lot of small shops around the area within a 30 mile radius, so it’s great to have the Co-op help spread us a little bit further.

“They’re going to be raising the profile of English wine, which has been a very difficult market to push into because it requires people to set aside their normal buying habits.”

The new wines are part of the Co-operative’s Best of Our Counties range, which involves sourcing food and drink from the county or neighbouring county of each store.

They will be available in its Chipping Norton store in the High Street from the end of this month.

As part of a network-wide focus on home-grown wines, managers of the Midcounties Co-operative’s food stores will undertake a day’s tasting and training with the Wines and Spirits Education Trust.

Mr and Mrs Nielsen bought the vineyard in 2000.

Prior to that, Mr Nielsen had been an RAF pilot and the pair had moved around the country.

Mrs Nielsen continued: “It was a very steep learning curve but over the years we have accumulated knowledge. We’re both very keen gardeners – but one vine is very different to 8,000.

“You’ve just got to know what the plant needs and after a couple of years of doing it you start getting to grips with it all.”

The pair both returned to college to learn about winemaking and the vineyard has since gone from strength to strength.

The flinty chalk soils of the Thames Valley provide ideal growing conditions for eight types of grape at Brightwell Vineyard, including well-known varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir, and the wines are exported as far afield as Singapore and Japan.

Mr Nielsen said: “The rest of the world has known about the quality and variety of English wine for some time, but England is only just beginning to realise what amazing wines we are producing right here.

"It’s great to see The Midcounties Co-operative support local, boutique products like ours. We’re excited to share our award-winning wines and we are confident that customers are going to love them.”