The sun has been shining, but who knows for how long! We ve been making the most of it with drinks in the garden (see here for our Instagram Live, where we show how lovely our fruit liqueurs are with sparkling wine: https://www.instagram.com/tv/CP8iAYbKmnD/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link ) In the winery, we have bottled two new small batches of wine - raspberry and rhubarb - about 400 bottles of each. Now they are safely stored on the bottle racking. The Pinot Noir rosé had its last filtering and n

May has seen an upturn in retailers orders as they open back up after the lockdown. We re very pleased to say that many of our old outlets have returned. It has meant a huge amount of labelling and boxing (60 plus), plus trips out to deliver, which is time consuming but good! Now we have eight pallets of glass bottles arriving for bottling over the next couple of months, so we can t move for glass. It s gone from none to falling over them! I ve been sorting out the winery to make space for the b

Tasting four raw tank wines being made for Burnt Foot Vineyard Checking on the progress of the Bacchus, Pinot Noir and Rondo wines from 2020 harvest. News about when the release of Bacchus will be ........... it is very soon

FREE Instagram Live taste-along on Thursday 20th May at 6:30pm. Grab your bottle of Monk s Mead for 10 before Sunday 16th May and join in with this insightful tasting session with winemaker Derek Jones. Monk s Mead is made with 100% coastal heather honey from Suffolk, which is pure-fermented with nothing added. This light, sweet wine is ideal with creamy desserts or cheese and is also fantastic served chilled on its own as a delicious aperitif. Local, natural and artisan, Monk s Mead is a true t

Sohpia Longhi @skinandplup was very pleasantly surprised on tasting these two gems. Just watch her reaction to the wine. These two wines are not very common, and little is understood about them. Derek and Sophia unpack the background to the wine and then explore a raft of exciting culinary delights that can be made from the wine. These wines have been described as having "attitude" and will set your palette dancing for joy. Gooseberry Wine | DJ Wines | Suffolk Redcurrant Wine | DJ Wines | Suffol

Life at the winery has been a bit quiet really. I m still full of this hay fever, which makes life a little slow. It s been very routine: paperwork; delivery of orders; spring clean in the winery. I ve also been working with Arthur on his Agora vermouth, which we will hopefully bottle soon. One great result is that we are visiting a new retailer in south Suffolk who viewed our Instagram postings and is interested in stocking some of our products. It s a very small new deli, so they won t be able

In this video we talk about Sloe Gin or give it correct title Sloe Gin Liqueur. Are all Sloe Gins the same if not how do these differences occur and manifest in the final product? Where are DJ Wines Sloe Gins more than 2 years old. Are you aware of the vast array of ways in which Sloe Gin can be drunk and used in your dining feast? This video takes you beyond using it in a hip flask. Once again we are delight to have Sophia Longhi of Skin and Plup with us. www.skinandpulp.com/links Derek Jones W

The filtering is done for the Bacchus and we ve racked off the lees for the red Rondo. The Bacchus is looking really good, very happy with it. The Rondo is coming on it s still very young, so we ve left it on Noble American oak and it will most likely stay there for another 6 months. It will have 18 months in total before bottling, most likely. We hope to bottle the Bacchus in May, but there s no hurry with it. At Burnt Foot Vineyard, we ve started tying down the canes. We ve done about 800 to 9

Early April goings on at DJ Winery! We ve had our first Farmers Market this year at Snape Maltings on Easter Saturday it was great to be back talking to customers! It doesn t look like we will be having the other events in May though - most have now been cancelled (that s five agricultural shows and six food festivals). Usually from Easter until late September I would be out every weekend doing an event, sometimes two events a weekend, as my wife Carol or my brother Neil would be doing one as we

New Video - tasting fruit wines with Wine communicator, writer + virtual tastings host Sophia Longhi of Skin & Pulp

This week has mostly been paperwork. Accounts and spreadsheets, invoices, deliveries to Co-op stores and internet sales. I spent a day with the new owners of our old vineyard at Crowfield to train them on pruning. The new owners are experienced gardeners but have never looked after vines. I left them with 1150 vines to do over the next few weeks, before going back and teaching them what to do next. One morning this week, I headed to Burnt Foot Vineyard to crop walk the vines to see the spring pr

This weeks activities at DJ Wines