Summer just got a little bit rosier, thanks to Royal Ag Uni's new wine

Published by

Nicky Godding

The Royal Agricultural University’s (RAU) award-winning Cotswold Hills wine has launched a new rosé version.

Cotswolds Hills dry white wine is already sold in75 outlets, including Gloucester Services and Midcounties Co-op. The wine is harvested at the University’s vineyard in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire, with students involved throughout the process from grape to bottle to shop shelf.

The new rosé wine was made at the Three Choirs vineyard in Gloucestershire by RAU alumnus Martin Fawkes, and as with the dry white, features beautiful artwork on thedesigned by former RAU student Sophie Cotton O’Meara.

Cotswold Hills is a student-run social enterprise, now in its fourth year, which provides RAU students with the opportunity to learn about vineyard management, grape varieties, wine production, marketing and finance, and help with the grape harvest.

The rosé has a delicate flavour produced from Rondo and Oretga grapes. It is also available to order online via the RAU Shop in cases of six or 12 at £15 per bottle.

As with the dry white wine, proceeds from the sale of the new Cotswold Hills rosé wine will go towards the RAU’s Enterprise Programme, to help support students wanting to start their own businesses.

Patrick Lane, first year undergraduate student at the RAU and retail lead for Cotswold Hills, said: “I am very pleased that we now have a fruity rosé in our product range, all the better that it is just in time for the summer!"

In 2019 the RAU became only the sixth university, and the first specialist university, to be made a Centre of Excellence by the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE).

New for 2020 the University also introduced a BSc (Hons) Rural Entrepreneurship & Enterprise course offering students the opportunity to gain the fundamentals of starting and operating a business under the guidance of specialist lecturers, practising entrepreneurs and industry mentors.

Nicky Godding

Nicky Godding is editor of The Business Magazine. Before her journalism career, she worked mainly in public relations moving into writing when she was invited to launch Retail Watch, a publication covering retail and real estate across Europe. After some years of constant travelling, she tucked away her passport and concentrated on business writing, co-founding a successful regional business magazine. She has interviewed some of the UK’s most successful entrepreneurs who have built multi-million-pound businesses and reported on many science and technology firsts. She reports on the region’s thriving business economy from start-ups, family businesses and multi-million-pound corporations, to the professionals that support their growth and the institutions that educate the next generation of business leaders.