A VINEYARD in Fife is on the brink of harvesting Scotland's first-ever wine grapes.
By September, the pioneering vineyard in Upper Largo near the East Neuk of Fife could become home to the first wine to be produced in the country.
Sweltering temperatures in Fife in the last few summers have brought the sunlight needed to "flower" the vines. Now after three years of waiting, owner Christopher Trotter may bottle the first vintage of Chateau Largo in two months' time.
He said: "The vines are flowering now, which they haven't done in the past, so that's looking very positive.
"They only flower if they get to a certain temperature, and obviously they've achieved that, so it's enormously exciting.
"I'm quietly confident we'll get a few grapes and make a small quantity of wine."
He added: "The advice is that you plant the vines and allow them to grow for three years before you harvest them, and you trim them back to allow the roots to really strengthen. We've done that, so this year we hope will be the first in which we produce enough ripe grapes to make some wine.
"We're only going to be harvesting off 200 vines and we just don't know how many bottles of wine we're going to get from that.
"But I'd be delighted if I made 20 bottles."
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