An update on the vineyard…

Hello everyone! It’s been a while since my last post, it’s been pretty flat out in the vineyard. The problem with going away for a lovely holiday even for just a few days is life in the vineyard never stops and yet it always surprises me, just how much everything has grown when I get back. For a moment I was in a bit of shock with just how much work there was to do but that only lasted a minute as then there was nothing for it but to just crack on. With the help of the team here we’ve managed to get on top of all the growth and now the vineyard is looking great again, the vines are looking healthy which I’m really pleased with given the topsy-turvy weather we’ve been having! 

We’ve just gone through flowering in the vineyard and berry development is in full swing so very soon we’re going to be able to get our first rough idea of this year's yield which is an exciting time as it will allow us to nail down what we want to make this year. With such a bumper crop from last year, it certainly gives us some options to play with a few more new things this year which always excites me so stay tuned for that. 

Speaking of new things, our brand new 2022 “Cheeky Fizz” rosé has just been released. 2022 was a great year in the vineyard, with really ripe clean fruit from a dry, hot summer. This has produced a delicious sparkling rosé once again, with beautiful fruit notes coming through with a hint of strawberry jam, make sure you come in and try some, I’m very pleased!

Many of you might have met our new runner ducks, roaming around the vineyard, we now have 11 of them patrolling the vines, eating any pests and fertilising the ground. They’re great fun to watch, however, they’ve taken to stealing my thunder on tours as they follow us around, strangely no one seems to be fussed about wine or what I’m talking about any more, they just want photos with the ducks… 

We also have 4 guinea fowl who we’ve slowly been raising in our stables to eventually come out and join the ducks so look out for them out and about very soon. 

If you are strolling around the vines and you have your dog with you, we please just ask that you keep them on a lead. 

It’s not just grapes we’ve got growing here on the estate. Sneaking a peak in the kitchen garden yesterday, I noticed these beautiful, plump onions coming through, they look fantastic! The horticultural team have done an amazing job in the garden and I can’t wait to sample these in the kitchen!

We’ve also had our first harvest of honey for the year which is delicious! We’re in the process of putting it into jars as we speak so if there’s any left at the end, as it seems to be a bit of a one for me, one for you kind of thing going on at the moment… look out for it on your deli platters in the restaurant or even for sale!

Mum has also started to build a secret mushroom empire, growing in one of our sheds! It’s certainly been inspired by Jeremy Clarkson’s mushroom adventure and if you’ve seen that episode you’ll all know how that turns out… So we’ll see how this particular motley adventure goes. I’m looking forward to tasting them though! 

So that’s a little update as to what’s been going on here, we’re getting into the really busy months where everything in the vineyard is ramping up as we near the harvest, so on that note, it's time to get back out into the vines!

Until next time, 

Cheers