Fruits of our labour!
Fiona Shiner, Founder
In a year of the extra ordinary... it is comforting that the vines have survived the lockdown, have worked hard to weather the climate change challenges and finally harvest has arrived with a touch of an Indian Summer.
Harvest is a very exciting and buzzy time in the vineyard and winery. We are optimistic for the quality of fruit this year with the potential for some really good ripeness levels due to the early start to the season.
At the time of writing it is a glorious September day and we started picking on the 14th September - the second earliest start to harvest after 2018. With a slight change in the picking order we started harvesting our Solaris and Siegerebbe grapes at Woodchester on Monday followed by the early Pinot Noir grapes for our Pinot Rose on Wednesday (usually our first pick of the harvest). Small berries, small lightweight bunches and in the case of the Siegerebbe reduced by wasp damage, we would have liked more fruit but the sugar levels are just right for the wines for which the grapes are destined.
Yields are very variety specific this year with Chardonnay, Bacchus, Sauvignon Blanc and Seyval Blanc looking very good but the Pinot’s generally have suffered a poor fruit set and will be low yielding this year with some clones performing better than others.
Will we make a still chardonnay this year - that is still the million dollar question.
Chardonnay basking in the sunshine… destined for a still Chardonnay!?
Tea break!
Pinot Noir safely netted from the birds – destined for our Atcombe Red!
Sparkling Wine Bottling
Jeremy Mount, Winemaker
Hello, brief overview of the winery operation at the moment. Over the last couple of weeks we have been preparing the winery for harvest, completely sanitising all tanks and equipment in the winery and press area, mostly thanks to my very capable new winery assistant Tom. So, harvest has started!!! Very exciting. So far we have Solaris, Siegerrebe and the early ripening Pinot Noir in tank. Generally the yields of most varieties are not huge so the fruit quality has excellent potential this year. Looking ahead we shall be getting the Bacchus and first load of Seyval Blanc in next week then probably a bit of a lull to wait for the sparkling base varieties to ripen to their full potential. Fingers are firmly crossed for good weather in October to make a still Pinot Noir and possibly Chardonnay!
First lot of Pinot Noir arriving at the winery
Newly branded barrels!!
