The Waiting Room

View of the wine cellar & Ian Coles.

Skinningrove is an inlet from the sea into The North York Moors, a little way along the coast from Whitby. The surrounding moors are scrubbed with heather and gauze bush, with the occasional gnarled elder tree alongside the dipping and winding roads, with verges that are otherwise strewn with nettles, bramble bushes, lobster pots and boat parts.

Ian Coles has one such elder tree across the lane from his back yard and coal sheds. And in the June of 1999 he made his first wine - from its spring time blossom - referencing ancient wine recipe books. In the autumn of the following year he made elderberry wine for the first time and in the mean time - over the next few years he experimented and perfected wonderful recipes from all that was available from within his garden and the surrounding lanes and hedgerow - from the lemon balm bush that grows against the brickwork of his house, to the black currant and gooseberry bushes in his back garden, the nettles and hawthorn and gauze of the surrounding lanes and moorland, and the sap of the silver birch, and young oak leaves from the woods.

By 2003 Ian was ready - with some beautiful wines - to go to market. And the wines that he has produced and continued to develop since that time really are delightful. When Ian pitched up at The Waiting Room so that we could sample his wares - we were quickly drunk, and quickly taken by the subtlety and delicacy of the flavours. His Skinningrove Country Wines have great variety and are true to the character of the main pulp ingredients used.

His is a true cottage industry, his old wash house is his winery, where he will typically have 8 x 5 gallon bins of ferment on the go at any one time, with a four ring cooker to cook up his must. And his cellar is his bonded warehouse and bottling plant. All fully licensed and certified by Customs and Excise.

Organic sugars and honey are delivered by Suma Wholefoods* (on the same run as The Waiting Room Friday wholefood delivery). Bottles are rescued and reused from local cafes and bottle banks; retrieved, washed (by a local farmer), sterilised, filled, recorked, foiled and labelled quite literally in-house. The whole process of reusing bottles in this way is more expensive than buying new bottles, but clearly it is more right.

The Waiting Room is now selling Skinningrove Country Wines - we're typically taking 8 - 10 flavours at a time from a range of over 50 varieties; Raspberry and Rose Petal, Clover, Parsnip Damson, Sloe, Rhubarb, Ginger, Hawthorn Blossom, Blackberry... delicate medium whites, strong dry reds, and full bodied and warming mediums.