Long overdue update
Apologies for the gap in news. I don’t want to bore everyone with a huge essay so in terms of getting things up to date. Life has been busy and updating on the news seems to never happen.
In summary…
Covid has bought us a silver lining through homeworking or enforced holidays which meant we did lots of work in the vineyard. We learnt how to do things and got some muscles in the process!
We’ve planted some pinot noir in the Seyval blanc. We couldn’t get any vine replacements where we had gaps and it’s clear the seyval is really struggling and on the way out – so we took the plunge and put in some Pinot Noir. It’s going to take a number of years before it’s ready and it’s quite an experiment but we hope this gives us more flexibility in the long run to make a rose or a red or use other grapes in the sparkling. It’s also another thing that Keith was always interested in doing but never did – so it’s nice to complete that dream. Planting was a very slow process and we’re going to have to keep adding in new vines every year - at the moment they are coexisting with the seyval.
We got frosted! Frosted with a capital F in May. We had plenty of warning but nothing we could do about it. I am amazed that anything survived after three nights of very low temperatures but there were a number of shoots that the frost couldn’t kill and they provided symbols of hope everywhere. The Schonburger was the worst hit. We have had good weather since and the vines had been busy growing their secondary shoots so we will have a crop this year but it will undoubtedly be small….and excellent quality (touch wood). We’re aiming to make a still blend as a minimum.
Covid did result in the cancellation of all our group tours. They were just getting started so that was sad. We’re hoping to get them up and running again but the infrastructure required, the H&S aspects, just means we aren’t ready yet – everything takes more thought. The website is going to have the means to book in on group tours very soon and things will start happening again.
Farmers Markets have started and it’s been lovely being back and seeing people. It feels like there is a real shift towards English wine – it’s not such a frightening prospect for people as most have now either been to a vineyard, tried English wine, or at least have read/heard positive things. Having stood behind a stall at a market over the last 15 years, it’s only now, at this time, that I’m picking up on everyday excitement from the public and a real willingness to try and a believe in English wine.
Our bacchus bottles are going to start looking …different. Half our bacchus bottles have the original beige caps on and half have white and gold. I didn’t know what I wanted to do in early 2019 after our massive 2018 harvest but I was quite sure our labels needed a refresh. So I played it safe and asked the winery to put white caps on half of the still wines. Now, those original caps are about to run out and I’m desperately trying to sort out a white version of our label to go with the caps, but also an attempt at a rethink and a new look. So we’ll see how that goes….I’ve kept my last few normal looking bottles for the shops but anyone buying them from us will notice a change.
Finally, this year I put in the Schonburger for the Wine GB competition – I have fingers and toes crossed!