According to the Biodynamic Calendar today was a Fruit Day, which is a great day for tasting wine.
There are four different classifications of days (Fruit, Flower, Leaf and Root), defined according to the position of the moon in relation to the twelve constellations. Each constellation is associated with four elements, earth, air, fire and water and each of these elements effects a different part...
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During the winter we've been busy pruning and tying down our 21,000 vines. It's the "royal we" of course as Alex has done almost all the work! The old wood has been taken off the vineyard and burnt, and we are now replacing broken canes and repairing some of the trellising.
We are also spreading some biodynamic compost on the vineyard which adds organic matter and helps to put back some of the...
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Yesterday Alex and I met up with our sparkling winemakers at Litmus Wines, together with Stephen Skelton MW, to taste the base wines from the 2014 vintage in order to decide what sparkling wines we would produce. In Champagne this process is called Assemblage.
There were many wines to taste; first and second pressings from the Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier, as well as small amounts of...
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| Attila is Vineyard Manager Alex's Parson Russell Terrier |
Attila's Bite, the first spirit from Albury Vineyard, will be released for sale at the end of this week.
It is a fragrant, aromatic eau de vie de vin made from Seyval wine (produced from the 2013 harvest) by the Silent Pool Distillery. It is excellent as a digestive after a meal and, from personal experience, I can recommend it with some good...
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| David Cameron intrigued by Attila's Bite! |
Last week Anne Milton MP hosted an event at the Houses of Parliament to showcase all the fabulous things that Surrey has to offer, including of course our wine.
Silent Pool Rosé was enjoyed by many MP's and their staff as they visited us between important debates and votes in the House. We were particularly delighted that David Cameron stopped by and tasted...
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Now that the harvest has finished we are busy tidying up the vineyard and preparing for next year. This of course includes burying our cow horns, filled with dung from a lactating cow, which will form the basis of biodynamic preparation 500.
Biodynamics is an advanced form of organic viticulture. "Bio" means life and "Dynamics" means energy. It's an holistic approach which aims to harmonise...
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Cow Pat Pit (CPP) is a biodynamic preparation that stimulates soil activity and enhances the humus forming processes of the soil. It also helps to initiate the fermentation of manure and activates organic matter conversion in compost. Research carried out after the Chernobyl disaster showed how it helped reduce the effects of radioactive fallout on land where it was applied.
It is made by mixing...
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At around 8.30pm on Wednesday we delivered our final load of grapes to our winemakers - 5 tonnes of of lovely clean ripe organic Pinot Meunier which concluded a mammoth picking day of 12 tonnes of grapes, totalling around 28 tonnes of fruit for the harvest overall.
Undoubtedly this has been our best year so far. Unlike the last three years, the weather has been really kind to us; no frosts in the...
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Last week we picked some of our Chardonnay grapes and crushed them by hand to make a Pied de Cuve. The idea of this is to cultivate naturally occurring yeasts on the skins of the grapes which can be used to ferment wine. Using natural yeasts in this way, instead of commercial yeasts, means we can make two types of ‘natural wines’ - a biodynamic sparkling and a Petillant Naturel. We hope that these...
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We picked our first grapes of the 2014 harvest on Thursday - around 2.5 tonnes of Seyval which have been pressed to produce some 1500 litres of juice which in the wine world is called
must. This will be fermented to produce a wine, probably blended with some Chardonnay, and then fermented again in the bottle for two years or more, to produce a quality English sparkling Blanc de Blancs (made from...
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So far this year we have been blessed with pretty good weather; certainly a lot better than the last few years. As a result, our grapes are ripening sooner than last year and we are now planning our harvest.
It looks like we will start picking week commencing 6th October and finish on
Saturday 18th October, when we will get together with wine club members, family and friend to complete the harvest....
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