The Irish Wine Coop: A Visionary Cooperative Reimagining Rural Ireland Through Organic Viticulture
The Irish Wine Coop: A Visionary Cooperative Reimagining Rural Ireland Through Organic Viticulture
Tucked into the rolling green of North Tipperary, in the historic village of Cloughjordan - the birthplace of 1916 Proclamation signatory Thomas MacDonagh - an ambitious project is taking shape that could transform rural Ireland for generations. The Irish Wine Coop, founded by Italian-Irish entrepreneur Denny Baldin, is not a conventional winery but a cooperative vision: a national network of family-sized, polytunnel-grown vineyards producing 100% organic, naturally fermented wine, with the potential to create 100,000 jobs and billions of euros in revenue by 2035.
Launched in September 2019 and headquartered in Cloughjordan, the Irish Wine Coop (IWC) draws inspiration from the dramatic growth of the UK wine industry, the Dutch post-war controlled-environment agricultural revolution, and Italy's largest wine cooperative, Caviro. Its central proposition is disarmingly simple: One Polytunnel = One Barrel of Wine.
The Man Behind the Mission: Denny Baldin
Denny Baldin's journey to founding the Irish Wine Coop is as unconventional as the project itself. Born in the Piedmont region between the West Alps and Turin, with half-Venetian roots, he originally dreamed of becoming a professional athlete or journalist. Instead, he earned a Dottore in Economia e Commercio from the Faculty of Business and Economics of Turin and spent time within the Benetton family business before moving to Ireland. He worked in customer service at Barclays' credit card division, then founded the mythical Piedescalso Art Café in Dublin's Liberties.
For eight years, Baldin moved to France to "dance with the Great Vines," writing the controversial book Super Natural Wine: The Black Revelation Circle, becoming Vice President of the organic winemakers' association of Beaujolais, and co-founding the Bojalien wine fair alongside some of France's bravest natural vignerons. The Bojalien chart established four uncompromising standards: AB (Agriculture Biologique), Nothing Added (NO+), Nothing Removed (NO-), and 100% Qualité d'Ivresse (100% QI) - essentially, hangover-free wine.
Back in Cloughjordan after working as a builder, farmer, and chef, Baldin launched the Irish Wine Coop in 2019. Today he splits his time between the Piedescalso Art Café in Dublin 8 and his Tipperary base, where he raises his two daughters.
A Business Model Built on Polytunnels and Family Farms
At the heart of the IWC concept is a radically different way of growing wine in a maritime climate. Rather than relying on unpredictable Irish weather, the cooperative proposes growing vines inside polytunnels or glass houses - "finely tuned Mediterranean habitats" - sized between 6×12 metres and 9×15 metres. Each polytunnel produces approximately 300 - 330 kg of grapes, which translates into one 220-litre barrel, or roughly 300 bottles, of organic wine per year.
The economic case is striking:
- Entry investment: €60,000 - 180,000 for a 20-polytunnel IWC Family Winery set up, including 10 years of IWC Academy training.
- Production: After two years of pruning and care, each Family Winery produces 20 barrels / 6,000 bottles a year from Autumn - Winter 2026.
- Revenue scenarios: At €5 per bottle, around €30,000 profit per year; at €10, €60,000; at €15, €90,000 annually.
- Long-term gift: A vineyard's lifespan is around 100 years. Over 98 years of production, a single 20-polytunnel unit could yield between €2.94 million (at €5/bottle) and €9 million (at €15/bottle).
- Employment per unit: One full-time winemaker position (€40,000) plus two part-time roles linked to the School to Fork and Festival de l'Amour programmes.
The cooperative is structured to reward its members. Harvests brought to the IWC winery are split 77% to the wine maker and 23% to the cooperative. By 2030 - 2035, founder Denny Baldin has committed to donating or gifting 51% of the IWC equity to its Vigneron Vignaioli Irish Wine Makers, transforming members into co-owners of the enterprise.
Becoming a Member: The 10-Year Masterclass
Joining the Irish Wine Coop is straightforward and accessible compared to the cost of establishing a traditional meat or dairy farm in Ireland. The 10-Year Masterclass Academy Contract works as follows:
- Year 1: €750 one-time fee per polytunnel vineyard, including IWC membership (members provide their own polytunnel infrastructure).
- Years 2 - 10: €75 per year, totalling €1,500 over nine years - the equivalent of one year's full production profit at €5 per bottle.
Members receive access to a 10-year academy covering vineyard care, pruning, and winemaking to the cooperative's highest standards; free use of IWC winery and vineyard tools; the right to use the Irish Wine Coop logo on their bottles; and the option to exit with a three-year notice. For those ready to scale up, the recommended entry point is a 20-polytunnel Family Winery, requiring an estimated €60,000 - 180,000 investment and a single polytunnel costs roughly €3,000 (6×12 m) or €35,000 (9×15 m airport-grade glass and steel frame).
The Incubator Triangle: Cloughjordan, Nenagh, and Gurteen
Rather than launching everywhere at once, the IWC has identified a Spiral Expansion strategy built around three anchor points in North Tipperary:
- Cloughjordan - the birthplace of 1916 leader Thomas MacDonagh, and the location for the first 34 IWC Family Winery polytunnel vineyards, alongside two prototype School to Fork and Festival de l'Amour pillars.
- Nenagh - where the IWC plans to convert the Rialto Cinema into its showroom, with offices, a dining room, wine bar, and winery, alongside a first student campus facility with the University of Limerick.
- Gurteen College - destined to host the next 300 polytunnels and to become Ireland's equivalent of Wageningen University in the Netherlands, the institution credited with the Dutch agri-food miracle.
From this incubator triangle, the IWC envisions spreading outward through Moneygall, Borrisokane, the rest of Tipperary, Munster, and ultimately the whole of Ireland.
Two Pillar Initiatives: School to Fork and Festival de l'Amour
Beyond wine, the IWC proposes two interconnected programmes designed to weave viticulture into the social fabric of rural Ireland.
School to Fork Food Network
Drawing on the rich food cultures of France's Rhône-Alpes Lyon region and Italy's Piedmont Turin, the School to Fork initiative proposes a revolutionary rural Ireland school canteen programme. Lunch hours would become masterclasses in which students learn to recognise, appreciate, and prepare healthy, locally sourced food. As the IWC frames it, farming is the "First Act" of the Cooking Play, while cooking is the "Third Act" of the Farming Play - melody and rhythm in the same piece of music.
By 2028, the cooperative aims to increase turnover of 50% of Tipperary's rural school canteens, with 500 part-time jobs. By 2030, full coverage of all rural Ireland canteens is targeted, with 15,000 part-time positions.
Festival de l'Amour Hospitality Network
The vineyard infrastructure would also serve as wine tourism venues hosting community festivals, food events, art, music, and creative gatherings. The fertiliser for the vines is symbolically drawn from the ashes of the Piedescalso Art Café in Dublin's Liberties. Additional revenue is forecast from student accommodation facilities - a chronic shortage in rural Ireland - with one Nenagh Family Winery projecting a potential €50,000 per year in student rental income alone.
An Organic and Living Wine
Every aspect of the IWC vineyards is designed to be 100% organic. Because the climate, water, wind, soil, and nutrients inside the polytunnels are fully controlled, no pesticides are needed and the risk of diseases such as mildew is minimised. Grapes can be brought to full ripeness by simply keeping the Mediterranean habitat doors closed once the fruit turns from green to red.
The IWC distinguishes its wines from conventional offerings on three grounds:
- Hand-picked, full grape fermentation. No pumps, only gravity. Mechanic pressing.
- Nothing added, nothing removed. No additives, minimal or no SO₂, no chaptalisation.
- 100% organic certification. Spontaneously fermented grape juice - "nectars" - kept alive in the bottle.
The result, the cooperative claims, is wine closer to music or dance than to a static industrial product - and, by the Bojalien standards, hangover-free.
The Numbers: A 10-Year Roadmap to 2035
The Agenda 2025 - 2035 is structured in three phases:
2025 - 2028: Significant Expansion
- €30 million investment with €30 million expected turnover.
- Up to 3 million bottles produced annually.
- 500 full-time Family Winery positions created.
- Thousands of wine tourism and student accommodation places.
2028 - 2030: Maturity Phase
- €300 million investment, €250 million turnover.
- 30 million bottles produced.
- 5,000 full-time workers employed.
- 100% of rural Ireland school canteens covered, with 15,000 part-time roles.
2030 - 2035: Critical Mass
- €3 billion turnover, with production expanding to 300 million bottles.
- 100,000 full-time jobs across the IWC, School to Fork, and Festival de l'Amour initiatives.
- 51% of IWC equity gifted to Vigneron Vignaioli members.
- Long-term vision for 2040 - 2050: €7 - 14 billion turnover and infrastructure to supply 1 billion bottles annually, capturing 10 - 25% of the global organic wine market.
Lessons from Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK
The IWC business case rests on three international models. Caviro, Italy's largest wine cooperative, has 11,650 member vine growers who own 52% of the company, producing 245 million bottles and €417 million in turnover - proof that large-scale cooperation can deliver both economic and ecological sustainability. The Dutch post-war transformation, powered by Wageningen University and controlled-environment agriculture, turned the Netherlands into the world's second-largest agri-food exporter despite having half the farmland of Ireland. The UK wine industry grew 74% in vineyard area over five years to 2023, producing 21 million bottles - though it crashed to 6 - 7 million in 2024 due to bad weather, precisely the volatility the IWC's polytunnel model is designed to avoid.
Philosophy: Dionysian Abundance over Apollonian Scarcity
Underpinning the cooperative is a philosophical stance the IWC calls the Regenerative Dionysian Framework, contrasted with what it describes as the contemporary Scarcity Apollonian Paradigm. The values promoted - truth, beauty, love, passion, family, strength, gratitude, forgiveness, sense of humour, and the joy of life as the first human nourishment - are rooted in the Biblical passage John 15: "I am the true vineyard, and my Father is the winemaker." The cooperative argues that modern capitalist economics rests on two false assumptions (scarcity, and the existence of an algorithm that can maximise consumer satisfaction) and that nature itself is geared toward abundance, with one apple seed containing five new potential trees.
Community Context: Cloughjordan and the Spirit of 1916
The choice of Cloughjordan is deeply symbolic. The village is the native home of Thomas MacDonagh, the poet, teacher, and 1916 Proclamation signatory whose words - "We declare the right of the people of Ireland to the ownership of Ireland" - frame the IWC's mission. The project is also a tribute to the broader rural community: the village's three Christian churches (St Michael and John Roman Catholic, St Kieran's Church of Ireland, and the Methodist Church), its amphitheatre, Celtic storytelling traditions, community farm, GAA and camogie clubs, primary schools, kindergarten, circus school, traditional pubs, and Train Station all feature in Baldin's vision of where vineyards, food, and culture can flourish together.
Engagement, Petition, and Contact
Although the Irish Wine Coop is not yet an operating winery selling bottles to the public, the cooperative is actively building momentum through outreach, partnerships, and member recruitment. A petition titled "Say Yes to Irish Wine" has been launched on Change.org. The cooperative maintains an active YouTube channel, Instagram feed, and X (formerly Twitter) account featuring tutorials, interviews, and visits to kindred spirits in the global natural wine movement, including Slow Food founder Carlo Petrini, Pierre Rabhi, Jonathan Nossiter, Claude and Lydie Bourguignon, Sepp Holzer, and Victor Schauberger.
Founder Denny Baldin can be reached at:
- Telephone: +353 (0) 85 74 08 007
- Email: baldindenny@hotmail.com
- Website: denny.land
- Membership: denny.land/membership.html
- Agenda 2025 - 2035 and Bio: denny.land/bio.html
- Instagram: @irishwinecoop
- YouTube: @IRISHWINECOOP
- X (Twitter): @IrishWineCoop
Looking Ahead
Whether the Irish Wine Coop reaches its projected €3 to €7 billion turnover and 100,000 jobs by 2035 remains to be seen. What is already clear is that the project offers a coherent, locally rooted answer to some of rural Ireland's most pressing challenges: an ageing farming population, the slow disappearance of the family farm, urban drift, and a wine market worth €1.5 billion a year that Ireland currently imports entirely. With its combination of controlled-environment viticulture, cooperative ownership, organic certification, and a multi-generational time horizon, the Irish Wine Coop is, in its own words, "a project for our children and grandchildren to get the best."
As Denny Baldin writes, quoting George Bernard Shaw: "Some look at things as they are and say why. We dream at things that never were and we ask why not?"