WHEN IT comes to wine, Scotland might be better known for its Buckfast than its Beaujolais. But a growing band of amateur wine-makers are looking to change that as they attempt to prove the country's potential to produce vintages worthy of the French classics.

Dr Alan Smith, an honorary research fellow at the University of Durham's Earth Sciences department, who moved to Aberdeenshire 15 years ago to start a permaculture project, is planning to produce his first wine later this year and claims wine making in Scotland has a future.

Smith, who grows a range of varieties such as Semillon and Russian Michurinets, both out in the open and under polytunnels, expects to harvest for the first time this autumn. The wine – which will not be produced in commercial quantities – will be ready next spring.

He said: "Scotland could have quite a big industry. There would be a lot of potential to produce something quite unique and there are a lot of types of grape that you can grow in a polytunnel. Instead of growing soft fruits like raspberries and strawberries in polytunnels, we could be growing vines instead.

"There is also the potential for outside vineyards if they are grown inland in areas like Stirlingshire and Perthshire. In England they classify grapes as fast or slow and the slow won't ripen outside even in England. But they would in a polytunnel in Scotland.

"I'm really doing this for demonstration purposes but I hope it will inspire people and show them that it is possible."

Last year hopes for Scottish wine were raised when chef and restaurateur Christopher Trotter – who had set up his own vineyard in Fife three years previously – produced his first bottle.

Chateau Largo – produced from the 200 vines at his home near Upper Largo – was eagerly awaited by experts but Trotter admitted that the first vintage tasted "horrible" as he had failed to chill the grapes quickly enough, allowing them to oxidise.

Garden expert John Stoa, from Dundee who has been producing his own wines from grapes – as well as a range of other fruits – for several years claimed Trotter had been held back by a couple of "atrocious" summers.

"The climate change that we're hoping will make Scotland warmer may be sometime in coming," he added. "Chris [Trotter] has a good location and the idea is good but he just needs a real summer. We have the potential but if the summers get wetter then that's no good. It's likely that crops are always going to be variable."

Stephen Sketton, who first started growing vineyard in England in 1975, has won medals for his wines and now works as a consultant to vineyards and wineries in the UK, claimed it was highly unlikely that Scotland would ever produce wine on a commercial basis.

He said: "We saw one wine produced last year; everyone said it wouldn't work and it didn't. We are seeing some amateurs attempting to see if they can succeed but I doubt it would be possible out in the open. It's too cold.

"Growing under polytunnels is different but the UK industry has taken the view that this is not really the way to go. When you come to sell the wine it has negative connotations and it makes it very difficult to get the acid balance right. I suppose with time you might be able to experiment and develop techniques that would allow you to do it. But it would be very expensive, difficult to do and where is the sales advantage?"

English wine is doing well though, he claimed, with wines being grown as far north as Yorkshire. However, he said it got more difficult to produce good wines further north. "The vine is a sugar-producing plant and it needs to have enough heat to produce sugar," he added.

But Professor Richard Selley, of Imperial College's department of Earth Science, said: "Recently planted Scottish vineyards have not been too successful and drinking their wine described as ‘challenging’. If temperature continues to rise as predicted, however, Scottish wine has a great future."