Bottling Round up

The best news this month other than the obvious and very welcomed start to Spring, is that all the still wines from the last harvest are now safely in bottle!

Bottling was completed last week and went remarkably smoothly thanks to Tiago and Dave from Bevtech and our excellent vineyard team. The wines were all bottled, labelled, boxed and taken to storage for gradual releases over the year. We now have 8 new wines. All our standard wines have been made but there are also a few interesting ones that are either new or not often made.

Sauvignon Blanc is one that we’re particularly happy about this year as is the re-introduction of both the Rosé and Pinot Rosé. These very popular wines ran out last year and the new editions are tasting very good considering they have only just been bottled. Releases shall begin in April.

Other new wine this year is the return of ‘Atcombe’ red wine that is predominantly Pinot Noir from the 2020 harvest that’s spent a year aging in barrel. Also a limited new release of single varietal Ortega which is usually only in the blend for the Culver hill. Very much looking forward to these releases over the coming summer months.

With the still wines from the 2021 harvest now in bottle and pruning coming to an end this week, we are looking forward to season 2022. As always, the start to the growing season comes with lots of challenges. We will be watching the vines closely for budburst over the next few weeks and monitoring temperatures in case we need to take action to protect the vines from frost well into May. 
This period between the end of pruning and the beginning of the growing season is like the lull before the storm, as once the vines break dormancy, the vineyard becomes a hive of activity. Don't worry, there is still lots to do for the vineyard team, including trellis repairs, mulching prunings, lowering the foliage wires ready to be lifted later in the spring to tuck the rapidly growing shoots into the trellis. 

Winter 2021/22 was milder than average (according to the met office the 8th mildest in a series from 1884) and there have been fewer days than normal when we have not been able to prune due to rain or frost. We actually prefer cold winters in the vineyard as a sustained cold period helps to kill off the pests and diseases from the previous year. 

Each season is unique and each vintage tells a story so stay tuned to find out what 2022 has in store for our vineyards.