June 2023

One of the highlights during June was a visit to Offbeat Winery in Downton, just outside Salisbury, to meet up with Daniel and Nicola (and Jarvis the cocker spaniel), our winemakers, in order to sample the 2022 wines prior to bottling (tirage).

These have been vinifying since last October and are now sitting in oak barrel. We were expecting, given the harvest of lovely fruit last year, to taste some exciting juice and we were not disappointed. The 2022 fruit was pressed the same day as harvest, and then underwent first fermentation with the aid only of wild yeasts — no sulphur, no enzymes, and no need for chaptalisation (extra sugar) as is Daniel’s style of winemaking.

All eyes, noses, and mouths at the ready as Daniel extracts juice with a wine thief from each barrel for us to taste. Each cuvée (the first pressing) and the taille (literally the ‘tail’, ie the second pressing) of the pinot and chardonnay juices are held in separate oak barrels. We also have some co-fermented chardonnay and pinot in an overflow steel tank; and finally a separate 228L barrel of special chardonnay which was kept aside to make either a still wine or a Blanc de Blancs.

A still chardonnay or a sparkling blanc de blancs? Which to plump for? The fruit was superb. After a little dithering, we decide to produce a small run of Blanc de Blancs — something I have wanted to do for a long while. It needs a great year for chardonnay in order to do make this style. Daniel declared that he was confident overall of making some fine wine. A sense of relief all around. Therefore, we will make a brut, a brut rosé, 300 bottles of Blanc de Blancs, and later on, a demi-sec. All done and dusted within the hour.

Flowering…

…and fruit set

Flowering started the second week of June and was largely over in three weeks, thanks to some fine weather. This was followed by excellent fruit set.