Stimulated by antiquarian writings about British viticulture, Bute decided to reintroduce commercial grape vines into Britain in 1873. He sent his gardener Andrew Pettigrew to France for training and planted a vineyard just beneath the castle in 1875. The first harvests were poor and the initial harvest in 1877 produced only 240 bottles. "Punch" magazine claimed that any wine produced would be so unpleasant that "it would take four men to drink it—two to hold the victim and one to pour the wine down his throat". By 1887, the output was 3,000 bottles of sweet white wine of reasonable quality. Bute persevered, commercial success followed and 40 hogsheads of wine, including a red varietal using Gamay grapes, were produced annually by 1894 to positive reviews.