Bottling Round Up

As some of you may know, last week we bottled our 2022 still wines. This year we bottled approximately 55,000 bottles and a record of 9 different wines. The majority of you will be very familiar with our core range of wines but in some years we introduce new wines. This is decided when a tank or some barrels are particularly good. This year we have a couple of new entries which will be announced when they are nearing release.

The bottling week is always very busy but it went exceptionally smoothly this year, despite the high gusting winds and rain. The bottling started on Monday afternoon with a run rate of 2,500 bottles per hour. The labelling rate was slightly slower but all the wines were finally bottled, labelled, boxed and in the storage by midday on Friday.

Once bottled the wines go through a process commonly called, ‘bottle shock’ when the wines taste disjointed (technical term); over time the flavours, tannins and other compounds combine and taste all together more harmonious. The amount of time this takes can vary hugely depending on the variety (or varieties in the case of the Culver Hill), from 1 week to a few months.

The labels have stayed roughly the same as last year with some adjustment to the back label but the one major change is the new box design. These are called snap lock; boxes that don’t have separate dividers and don’t need parcel tape. They also require less people for production. The lack of parcel tape, significantly less packaging waste and the reusability of the boxes helps with our continual improvements in sustainability.

Next stop - focus turns to all things sparkling wines.

Tying Down

As spring is fast approaching, the final task in our winter pruning, is almost finished, that is tying down the fruiting cane to the fruiting wire. This involves bending a vertical cane into a horizontal postion and tying it with a biodegradeable paper tie on to the tensioned fruiting wire. It is more tricky than it sounds as the canes can be brittle and snap. The fruiting cane is aptly named as it will produce the majority of the fruit from that vine for the 2023 harvest. If it snaps, the yield from that vine is drastically reduced. We therefore leave this task until March when the temperature starts to rise and the cane becomes more flexible and less susceptible to snapping, although we always lose a few. We have to be careful handling the canes at this stage as warmer temperatures mean the buds are beginning to wake up from their winter dormancy and swell. If we leave tying down too late, we risk damaging the buds, as tying down requires physically handling the cane. If there is a risk of frost, leaving the cane vertical can reduce frost damage, so we leave tying down in our frost pockets to last. There is always a compromise!