Getting ready for growing season
While we continued with winter pruning throughout a very chilly February, we are now looking forward to warmer days and for the vineyard to show the first signs of life again. Early in spring, our vines will begin to develop small buds that will develop into shoots. Once the first buds start to appear, we need to keep a close eye on the weather for signs of late frosts. Freezing temperatures will damage the fragile buds and could severely impact our crops for the year. We have saved the offcuts from winter pruning, and these can be burnt in strategically placed incinerators in between the rows of vines to warm the air if a late frost is predicted.
The sheep have been removed to a new pasture and the vineyard team is now working along each row of vines to lower the wires. Once the vines begin to throw out new shoots, these will grow along the wires. As the vine grows, the upper wires will be brought up again. We do not allow the vines to grow too high, but train them along the wires. We need to maximise air and sunlight, and encourage the vines to focus on growing fruit.
First taste of the 2022 vintage
The 2022 harvest has been with our winery for about six months now, and we visited the winemakers to do an initial tasting last week. The grapes we harvested in 2022 were the Seyval Blanc, Phoenix, Rondo, Regent and Pinot Noir. We took small samples of each and checked the acidity, sweetness, mouth feel, clarity, dry scale, smell, fruitiness, herbaceous notes and colour. Once we are happy with the levels of each, we will blend and taste again.
Our sparkling wines take longer to develop and produce than our still wines, as they go through a secondary fermentation in the bottle that dissolves the trapped carbon dioxide to ensure we get the bubbles. This means that we do not release a sparkling wine every year.
We have decided to concentrate our efforts on a smaller range from the 2022 harvest to ensure that we give you the very best wines we can, so watch this space for news about when they are released.
