August 2022

The rain finally came this week after 6 weeks of drought and high temperatures. We recorded 41 degrees in the shade on the day when the Met Office instructed us to stay inside and pull the curtains! Nanny state.

When the heavens finally opened it was a blessing for the grapes even though the canopy had remained remarkably green and healthy throughout the hot weather.The vine roots will be at least 6 feet deep and be able to reach through the chalk to find water. If we had planted this year, I might not be so relaxed.

Flowering started in the Pinot field at the end of June and went through both varietals smoothly without a hitch.  This was followed by fruit set with nice balanced berries forming in the bunches.

The wine maker, Daniel, has sent me a harvest estimate matrix to complete.  This has me scratching my head as it is very difficult at this stage to estimate what the final weight will be.  It will be lighter for sure than in other years due to the hot weather; however, if we get plenty of rain at veraison to plump the bunches up, who knows.  The difference between an average of 120gm per bunch and 100gm will make a difference in a tonne either way (the equivalent to 800 bottles).  Then the question is, do we have enough oak barrels to ferment in? Ordering from Burgundy is not as easy as it once was with a lead time of 6 months.

We entered a couple of UK wine competitions this year and managed to come away with one gold and 4 silver medals for our range of 2018 fizz which was rewarding. Nice to get a gold medal for the first release of our sparkling rosé.  It has been selling like hot cakes this summer.  We made it by blending our 2018 brut with the ripest of the 2022 pinot noir to achieve the colour and taste we wanted.  There is more in the pipeline to be released early next year.

The next stage in the grape development will be veraison — the onset of the ripening — when it shows first in the pinot noir turning purple.