Summer is finally here (for now…)
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 now it’s ready for bottling. Ian, the owner of Burnt Foot Vineyard, has tasted it over the weekend and both of us agree that it has become a pleasant wine but it is still a little young, so we have agreed to delay bottling until July. It will soon be time to check the Pinot Noir red and see how it has progressed.
We also tasted the Rondo red and I’m very pleased with it. It has softened considerably and it has the hallmarks of a very good red. Ian commented today that even with it still being very young, it is the best red that has been produced from this vineyard. I can’t wait now for it to finish maturing and be bottled next spring. Really excited about this wine!!
We finished bud selection and shoot removal in the vineyard last week. We also managed to get the first of this year’s spray on, which is the latest we’ve ever been. We haven’t been able to do it earlier due to the weather. With the warm weather, the shoots are now really getting going and if we have the forecasted thunder storms at the end of the week, the rain should provide valuable water for the vines which they desperately need.
Now that we have found people to help with bottling the Bacchus, we plan to release it on the expected date during English wine week. We’ll start sorting out the labels for this year’s bottling of Bacchus and Rosé. Ian confirmed that the labels for last year’s wines 2020 should be here soon.
In the vineyard, we need to lower the first trellis wires ready for tugging in the vines in couple of weeks. There are spiders galore! This time of year spiders cast their webs everywhere, which I normally don’t mind as the little fellows need to live and eat, however not in my winery when we need to bottle soon.
Believe it or not, we need to start preparations for the next grape harvest, which is only 12 or so weeks away. A lot of our equipment needs maintenance to avoid breakdowns, especially seals on tanks, pipes and pumps.
We’re looking forward to our first major event on the 3rd July at the Royal Norfolk Show ground. We hope to see you there!