November 2022

The winery at Offbeat Wines. 

Daniel is seen here siphoning samples from our barrels of the 2022 juice for us to taste.  These four oak barrels shown in the photo hold some of the cuvée and the taille (the second pressing) from both our chardonnay and pinot noir.  This allows us options for future blending.  This season really turned out to be the year for chardonnay — that trickiest of grapes to grow but when it comes good it is unbeatable. Our current plan is to make a small amount of Blanc de Blancs (100% chardonnay). If there is any left, maybe even a still chardonnay, says Daniel!  We have also co-fermented a volume of chardonnay and pinot in a steel tank — we were too late in ordering another oak barrel from Burgundy.

When we visited the winery in late November it was immaculately tidy with all tanks full and oak barrels racked three high on frames.  A far cry from the orgy of pressing during October. The winery was distinctly chilly, and it will not be long before the wines are tucked for the winter.  Daniel will visit periodically over the next two months but otherwise, work from home in Salisbury preparing for the new season.

We took the opportunity to taste some disgorged wine from 2019, 2020, and 2021 vintages.  This is ‘naked’ wine in the bottle before dosage has been added.  The plan is to release some of the 2019 vintages next year.  Daniel has made a sparkling rosé out of a portion of the 2020 vintage and we all agreed it tasted very promising.  Lots of lovely red fruits coming through.  This will be ready in the early summer of 2023. Sparkling rosés are often ready for release earlier than their brut brothers thanks to the extra red wine added in assemblage.