October 2022
My apologies for the belated report on this season’s harvest. We pressed the button early in the middle of October: the grapes came off in a total of 6 hours after 7 months of close attention and nurture. I then promptly went on vacation to let my back recover, feeling relieved but a bit flat.
If 2021 qualified, following a thoroughly wet summer with a low crop, for what our late queen famously coined (after the fire at Windsor Castle), an ‘annus horribilis’, then this year will go down as an ‘annus mirabilis’. We were owed one.
We had a beautiful crop of grapes — not an enormous tonnage as in 2018 (that was a season in a generation for wine producers, whoopee ) — but the quality was magnificently ripe and disease free. The six weeks of very hot weather in July/August probably contributed to smaller bunches; furthermore, we were growing fruit on last year’s cane which had not been very productive. The canes in the chardonnay block had plenty of ‘blind’ buds. On top of that the roe deer dawn breakfasted on a few young buds during the spring. They are becoming quite a pest. Another result of the pandemic and low levels of culling.
Our winemaker, Daniel Ham, pronounced that he had never seen such ripe grapes during his career. He makes wine for a handful of organic vineyards as well as producing his own wine (Offbeat Wines). The fruit coming in from Essex was the ripest of all, some with a potential alcohol of 14 degrees. Essex is the hottest and driest part of the country. It is becoming the breadbasket for the English still wine industry, with plenty of sandy and clay-based soils which are ideal for making still wine.
Back to the winery. The first fermentation of our juice was smooth and instantaneous in the warm conditions of October, with the winery doors flung open. High sugars and wild yeasts made it a stress-free period for Daniel.
The harvest itself
After an anxious September willing on the grapes to ripen, things all came together in October with warm days and nights of 15-18 degrees. This produced high sugar levels and low (but not too low) acids— the perfect combination for making excellent sparkling wine. The pinot noir was picked on 11 October by a small gang of experienced friends. We were finished by lunchtime and down at the winery by 4pm. We weighed in and left the team to fill the press. It went like a dream.
As the week went on the forecast for the following was looking distinctively wet and miserable so we took the decision to pick the chardonnay early that Sunday. The Gods looked down on us favourably. Sunday was a beautiful blue-sky day. We were in shirtsleeves by 10 o’clock.
Old hands and newbies all performed admirably, with had 20 pickers out, such that we were finished by 12 noon followed by a fun harvest lunch in the barn. After lunch we roped up the crates on two trailers and off we went to Salisbury, driving fairly gingerly the whole way with our precious cargo.
Before the harvest itself we had done a month of ‘green’ harvesting. This involves taking off any bunches that are unlikely to ripen, reducing bunches on some shoots, or those with a bit of rot (often where a bird has taken a peck out of a berry). This makes harvesting itself a doddle so that pickers can just snip, snip. In previous years we had asked the pickers to do surgery ‘on the go’. This has meant slow progress and a very tired workforce.
The total tonnage was just under 3.5 tonnes which was not large but as predicted. The pinot produced more than the chardonnay which was unusual — largely down to the fact that the chardonnay fared worse last year, thus affecting yields this year.
We will look at what styles to make early next year but given it was such a good year for chardonnay we may make a blanc de blancs — 100% white grapes,normally chardonnay but not exclusively. Breaky Bottom in Sussex produce a fine BdB from 100% seyval blanc. Peter Hall is a wizard.
ORGANICS
This is our second year of being organic — another year to go for certification —with the extra fillip of applying biodynamic applications. The vines have never looked healthier. Even during the driest period of the summer our canopy looked amazingly green and healthy. The roots of the vines would be probably 6-7 feet deep by now.
In addition to producing good fruit, we also want to improve and regenerate the soil. We have never had intensive agriculture on our meadows fortunately — years and years of sheep grazing— so we had a head start. Nevertheless, it is crucial to keep improving the structure of the soil.
At a wine tasting In London recently with Oz Clarke, one of the UK’s leading wine writers, he talked about the famous Chapoutier vineyards in the Rhone where they are fully biodynamic. The owners quite seriously say that ‘soil talks if you listen to it’.
Take one square metre of healthy soil. It will contain 5000 insects, molluscs, and worms. It will also contain 300 different yeasts. Compare that to the equivalent in an agro/industrial vineyard: there will be no yeasts, no ants, and no worms. Good soil amazingly replaces itself completely on a regular basis. Therefore, one of the major things we are trying to do is improve microbial life in the soil. Do that and the vines will prosper on their own accord.
During lockdown I was recommended a book by Gabe Brown entitled ‘From Dirt to Soil’. Gabe was a prairie farmer in the US who transformed his inherited farm from being a dirt bowl to a flourishing mixed farm. Do read it. It is transformative.
What sprays do we use? In addition to using sulphur and a tiny bit of copper, we apply seaweed and garlic. To these we have added other biodynamic sprays such as horn manure (for the soil), silica, yarrow, willow bark (it contains salicylic acid as found in aspirin), and horsetail — most of these are aimed at building resistance in the vines against mildew. These are all plants with medicinal properties.
Biodynamics takes a salutogenic approach to the farm/vineyard, in others words the attention is on achieving health instead of fighting disease.
I have one more application to make before the vines go to sleep for the winter — horn manure mixed with a compost tea which will be sprayed on the soil before temperatures drop too low, ie 10 degrees centigrade. More on this subject in my November blog.