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| Attila |
Last year we had a problem ripening our Seyval, the majority of which we decided wasn't good enough to make quality sparkling wine. So what to do? Luckily a new distillery has moved in next door to us and we have decided to make a grappa style spirit from what amounts to around 900 litres of Seyval wine.
Attila's Bite, as we intend to call this fragrant aromatic spirit, is named after Alex's...
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Earlier this week we tasted what will be the very first release of our quality bubbly. It's a blend of wines made from our 2011 and 2012 harvests, which were partly aged in oak before being bottled for secondary fermentation early last year. We were delighted with the results; a real credit to our vineyard manager Alex, who carefully nurtures the vines, and also winemaker Matthieu at Litmus.
During...
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| Flowering Chardonnay |
Flowering and fruit set is now well underway on the vineyard and, whilst I don't want to temp fate, the potential for this year is looking very good.
The warm start to the year resulted in bud break about 4 weeks ahead of last year and the good weather since then means that flowering and fruit set are also well ahead. This is good news because it means that we stand a better...
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Great fun at the vineyard on Saturday as we released our Silent Pool Rosé 2013 to our Wine Club members.
Nearly 100 wine lovers turned up to the event, when we tasted not only the new release of our still rosé but also some Albury Pinot Gris and a Pétillante Naturel from the Loire Valley. An alcoholic haze enveloped the vineyard!
Miraculously the sun shone for the whole of Alex's popular tour of the...
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| Winemaker Matthieu with the first bottle of our biodynamic bubbly |
It's been a crazy week, which started with the bottling of 16,000 bottles of Albury Estate sparkling wine from grapes we picked from last years harvest. The wine will go through secondary fermentation during the next month or so to give it it's fizz, and then mature in the bottle for probably for at least two years to give it the...
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Silent Pool Rosé 2013 will be released for sale on Saturday 24th May, the start of English Wine Week.
The wine was made from some of the ripest hand-picked Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes from last years harvest. Having recently tasted some barrel samples we are delighted with the wine and believe it is our best vintage yet.
Stephen Skelton MW comments:
"The wine is a pale salmon pink, with...
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We had a close call last night as temperatures on the vineyard fell to -1.7C, resulting in a light frost. We got a text from the weather station at around 5.00am, with a warning that the temperature had fallen below zero, but by the time we got there the sun was rising. Fortunately there shouldn't be too much damage as the vines are only at
budburst or
first leaf stage at the moment and are fairly...
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We are delighted to have been entered for the
Food and Drink Producer category of the Surrey Food and Drinks Awards. The award is sponsored by Lythe Hill Hotel, Restaurant and Spa, and last year was won by Hogs Back Brewery.
Surrey has some amazing local food and drink. As well as wine and beer there are producers of beef, cheese, watercress, smoked trout, soft drinks, and even ice cream. Many...
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I spent Friday afternoon on the vineyard doing a bit of filming with
Monty Waldin, that may lead to a project to produce English Petillant Naturel (or "
Pet Nat" for short).
Pet Natis a naturally sparkling wine that is made with little or no additives. It is bottled part way through the fermentation of the grapes, so that the naturally produced CO2 is absorbed by the wine to give it its fizz. This...
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| The same vine before and after pruning |
This is the time of the year for pruning. Alex's instructions are to "prune hard and keep it simple". It's important to cut out any diseased wood and to focus on the long term health and efficiency of the vine, which essentially means "less is more". We're therefore being fairly aggressive with our pruning this year, which will hopefully result in better...
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