Our new gazebo made its first appearance at the Albury Produce Show on Saturday. We were very pleased with the gazebo but Albury residents were even more impressed with our Silent Pool Rosé.
Most folk had heard that a local wine had been served on the Royal Barge as part of the Diamond Jubilee celebrations and were keen to taste it for themselves. Over 170 people tasted the wine and our remaining...
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Shoot Tipping
Shoot tipping is part of canopy management that involves removing the top of the growth tip of a shoot. This temporarily changes the flow direction of nutrients and water and therefore encourages lateral shoot growth, which in turn will provide additional leaf surface which increases photosynthesis during fruit ripening.
This practice would normally be done after fruit set but
Peter...
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St Swithin's Holy Well
We don't have a single day in the next 10 that is forecast to be without rain - in July! This isn't good news on the vineyard as it is the season for flowing and pollination which, to be effective, requires warm dry and sunny days.
Flowering is between one and two weeks behind this year as a result of the poor cooler weather in May and June. Some of the Seyval have flowered...
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Winemaker Ulrich Hoffmann
Last night our Silent Pool Rosé was award a bronze medal at the South East Vineyards Association (SEVA) awards ceremony. This was quite an achievement given that it is our very first wine. Congratulations to Alex, who lovingly nurtured the vines to give us great quality grapes in a difficult year, and Ulrich who turned them into a lovely wine.
There were no gold medals this...
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Much to our delight, our first wine, Silent Pool Rosé 2011, has been selected to be served to the Royal party on board the Royal Barge, Spirit of Chartwell, as it sails down the Thames leading the historic flotilla to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations on Sunday.
Two other English wines will also be served: Nytimber Classic Cuvee 2007 and the Stopham Pinot Blanc 2010.
Silent Pool...
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Silent Pool Rosé 2011
Our first wine, Silent Pool Rosé, is already proving extremely popular. It's not officially for sale yet but local off-licences, restaurants and retail outlets are clamouring to include it on their lists!
Retail outletsThe Guildford Wine Company, Shalford
Taurus Wines, Bramley
The Vineyard, Dorking
Pubs/RestaurantsDrummond Arms, Albury
Kinghams Restaurant, Shere
Percy Arms,...
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Earlier this week we bottled our first wine which we have called Silent Pool Ros
é. It has been made exclusively from hand-picked organic Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier grapes from our own vineyard. We are delighted with our first effort; our winemaker, Ulrich Hoffmann, describes the wine as elegant and crisp with subtle and fresh summer...
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Much appreciated help from Philip, JB, Peter and Gary
We were out on the vineyard last night as temperatures reached as low as -4C. At this time of year frost is our biggest nightmare as it can cause significant damage even before bud burst. Michigan State University have produced a chart showing vine frost tolerance at different temperature levels according to bud development
http://www.ristcanyon...
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Horn Manure (Preparation 500)
Alex thinks I've gone crazy but we've taken the plunge anyway and gone biodynamic!
Biodynamics is sort of
organics plus. Like organics, it excludes the use of artificial chemicals and encourages the use of composts and manures. However it also promotes the holistic interrelationships between the soil, the plants and animals, as well as the more subtle rhythms...
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Gary and the Frost Killer |
Our latest piece of armoury in the war against Jack Frost is now ready for action!
Gary has converted and old corn dryer machine so that it continually sucks in huge amounts of cold air at ground level and shots it skywards. This will hopefully create enough air movement in the lowest part of the vineyard to fight off the worst of potential frosts.
The Frost Killer will be...
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Double Guyot pruning
The main task in the vineyard during winter is pruning which has to be done by hand. We now have 21,000 vines to prune but fortunately Alex loves the job. Since December she has been sniping away with the help of her partner Cliff and some casual workers. I'm feeling very guilty as I've been in Australia for the last 6 weeks on a combined holiday and work trip.
Pruning this year...
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In research commissioned by German wine trade fair Prowein, significant minorities of wine drinkers in the US, China, Germany and the UK said their ideal wine would have less than 12% alcohol.
In Britain, 22% said their ideal wine was 10.5% or less, with similar numbers in Germany and the US saying the same. The preference for lower alcohol is most marked in the younger generation. In Britain, 27%...
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