Flying through May!
Jeremy Mount, Winemaker
This has been another busy month disgorging, labelling and I have begun the prep for bottling the
sparkling wines, which this year will be at the beginning of July. The process is very similar to
preparing the still wines for bottling. The barrels, tanks and reserve wines are tasted, categorised
and then blended to the appropriate wine. Following this they go through cold stabilisation, filtering
and then bottled with additional yeast and sugar that re-ferments creating the fizz, which is the
traditional method that we use for all our sparkling.
The current focus in the winery is the barrels. The barrels don’t just contain our red wines but also
the sparkling base wines; Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Seyval Blanc and Pinot Blanc. They have been
aging in oak for approximately 6 months. Some were in barrel pre-fermentation, others have been
transferred after completing fermentation in stainless steel. It’s always a very interesting process
trying the various barrel groups all with their individual nuances. Once blending decisions have been
finalised they get transferred to tank. This year we are not only bottling our core range; Reserve
Cuvee, Rosé Brut and Cotswold Classic but also trialling a new addition to the range. However, as it
will take 2-3 years for release it will be a while before we have any more news on it…
