Summer-holiday weekends seem to mean two things: a sudden surge of gardening activity and a bit more cork-pulling than usual - often as a reward for all that toil in the soil. Although wine producers are often brilliantly talented gardeners, my own pathetic back-yard suggests that being an avid wine drinker doesn't go hand-in-hand with horticultural expertise. Grapes with prongs and grapes with pips belong in different worlds. . . or so I always thought. But from this weekend onwards, Irish wine lovers may be tempted to indulge in a form of gardening dreamt up specially for them.
Why not plant a grapevine or two? David Llewellyn, a Dublin-based horticulturist best known so far for his farm, has about 20 varieties on offer. Some, like Madeleine Angevine - a grape that is helping to make doubters revise their opinions about English wine - can be grown here out-of-doors. "It'll be fine on a sunny wall in the southern half of the country - anywhere south of a line from Galway to Drogheda," Llewellyn says, "or in the open in sheltered gardens around Dublin and Cork." Others - so-called "noble grapes" such as Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Pinot Noir - usually only flourish in Ireland if they're in a greenhouse. That means you're unlikely to get a crop big enough for wine production, even on the teeniest scale - but still, wouldn't it be fun to give a wine-loving friend a living reminder of their favourite grape variety?
Although David Llewellyn has been growing grapes successfully in Ireland for 10 years, he has only recently begun to market them. "I'm trying to spread the word of the vine," he says - something we might just guess from the fact his company is called Fruit of the Vine. He is not alone, of course. Ireland already has a few established vineyards. Dr Billy Christopher grows Reichensteiner, Seyval Blanc and Madeleine Angevine near Mallow, Co Cork. Michael O'Callaghan focuses mainly on Reichensteiner at Longueville House nearby. Jacinta Delahaye, wine consultant and energetic editor of the new magazine Wine Ireland, is devoted to her 150 Madeleine Angevine and Sylvaner vines in Co Wicklow.
While a number of garden centres are stocking some of Llewellyn's outdoor grapevines (and table grape varieties, too), you'll probably need to make the pilgrimage to his base near Swords if you're after a member of the wine nobility. All the vines come with a detailed label giving planting and aftercare instructions. You can grow them quite successfully in pots, David Llewellyn says, moving up a tub size every year for the first few years. "It's handy, because you can move them out-of-doors again in the winter, while they're dormant." Later in the year, he'll be selling mature dormant vines in pots by mail order - a handy Christmas present, perhaps, for a wine-lover whose cellar is already over-stuffed.
The main problem with the grapes we know and love - Cabernet, Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and the like - is that they're prone to powdery mildew; but the spray that saves your roses from a similar plight should sort things out.
Outdoor varieties are available from Johnstown Garden Centre, Cabinteely; Powerscourt Garden Centre, Enniskerry; Southside Garden Centre, Kilternan; Garden Works, Malahide and Clonee; Hennessys, Kilkenny; Glynns, Lydican, Co Galway; Griffins, Cork and some other gar- den centres. Small vines about £15.99; large vines about £75. Full range of wine grape varieties available direct from David Llewellyn, Fruit of the Vine, tel: 0872843879.