Howard’s Folly to up production five-fold

By Lisa Riley

Published: 17 October, 2018

Howard’s Folly is poised to increase its production five-fold from 60,000 to 300,000 bottles over the next five years.

The increase follows investment in a new state-of-the-art winery in Estremoz town centre, which became fully operational last month.

The new winery provided Howard’s Folly with the permanent home it had been lacking and allowed it the flexibility to make small batch wines, said winemaker David Beaverstock, who partnered with Howard Bilton in 2002 with the aim of to bringing to market a range of “outstanding wines" under the Howard’s Folly label.

“We have now connected with many local farmers who have very small plots of very old vines. From those parcels we plan to make single vineyard super premium wines. We have developed a business plan to gradually increase output over the next five years from the existing 60,000 bottles to a total of 300,000,” he said.

Prior to the new winery, the duo had been buying grapes from local vineyards and renting production capacity but decided to invest in their own production facility following a string of temporary arrangements having let them down.

The location of the winery was “no accident”, added Bilton, with Estremoz set to shortly host a very large art museum poised to attract very large numbers of additional visitors to town, he said.

While the short-term plan was to focus on continuing to produce “world-class wines”, long-term plans included construction of a substantial visitor centre, he revealed.

“We want Howard’s Folly winery to reinforce Estremoz’s position as a tourist hub to the benefit of all local businesses. We aim to be a good neighbour and support the local community,” said Bilton.

Awin Barratt Siegel Wine Agencies is the exclusive distributor of Howard’s Folly wines in the UK.

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