Man on wine mission in the Outer Hebrides

The driest September on record and an audacious, teetotal ex-missionary have combined to make wine from the most northerly vineyard in the UK.

The unseasonably dry September has allowed Donald Hope to produce a wine on the island of Lewis, in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, from the 2014 vintage, reported the Scotsman.

Hope, 70, a retired ex-missionary from County Durham has harvested about 600lb (272kg) of Black Muscat grapes from his smallholding at South Dell, just six miles from the Butt of Lewis.

Of the 400 bunches produced most have been sold at the local farmers market but Hope has put a portion aside this year to go towards his Hebridean rosé,….