ICCWS 2016, Tirage, Apprentices, Export and Harvest Prep

We are all recovering from the fantastic few days we spent at the International Cool Climate Wine Symposium held in Brighton at the end of May. Nearly 600 delegates and speakers from across the cool and not-so-cool winemaking regions of the world descended on the seaside city more renowned for its vibrant nightlife than winemaking. 

We all took advantage of the nightlife and enjoyed some fantastic evening events in the Brighton Museum and the Sealife Centre. For many of the visitors the opening reception was the first time they had tried English wine and we were pouring our Hattingley Valley Classic Cuvee 2013 which went down a storm. 

The information and research presented was invaluable to us as an emerging cool climate wine region. Some dry topics such as 'Combating Botrytis' and 'Protected and Semi-Protected Viticulture' were balanced with rather more pleasant tastings of English Sparkling Wines presented by Essi Avellan MW and English Still Wines presented by the indomitable Oz Clarke (chaired by yours truly).

Emma Rice with Oz Clarke - English Still Wine Tasting

Back to the real world and the task in hand this week is getting the winery and wines ready for bottling. Cold stabilisation and filtering is done, the bottles are arriving 26,000 at a time. The crown caps, yeast, adjuvants and stillage cages are here. The winery is being cleaned down to the last drain cover and the sugar is being prepared to be mixed into the base wines.

Fondoirs, ready for the sugar

Bottling is a real marker in the winery year. It is when we put one vintage to bed and start thinking about the next harvest. Not having our own bottling line we rely on the mobile lines that spend the summer  months roving around the south of England, having bottled most of Champagne earlier in the year. The arrival of the trucks with their French engineers means we have a short window in which to bottle, The flurry of activity flies by in a whirl of noise, lots of gesticulation in French, English and Franglais, and clinking glass. The feat of getting 200,000 litres, taking in 35 different cuvees, ready for the two week period is a daunting task, handled admirably by the winery team on a relentless schedule of racking, blending, tasting, cold-stabilising and filtering.  

Bottles, cages and more bottles

Looking forward to October (which seems frighteningly close), walking the vineyards with Jim and Rom, we are already revising down our estimations on the potential yield thanks to the infamous frost of 27th April. We saw some serious damage to our Chardonnay as the buds were just peaking out, whilst the Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier escaped the worst of the cold by being slightly behind their white cousin. Some of the vines pushed through their second buds but others were completely decimated. To add insult to injury the buds that did survive were then battered by five episodes of hail in one day, thankfully isolated to a few small patches but galling nonetheless. 

What is left (by far the majority) is now doing very well having had a couple of weeks of wonderful sunshine. Battening down the hatches this week though thanks to the rain showers so typical of an English June. 

Rabbit Bank Vineyard in the Test Valley

To keep us busy we are also interviewing the shortlisted candidates for the Winery Apprentice being sponsored by the Vintners Company, Liberty Wines and the Wine & Spirit Education Trust. Inundated with applications from candidates from all walks of life it has been a tough process to shortlist. Even tougher now we are meeting the candidates. Each has something to offer and deciding who will be the best fit and get the most out of the opportunity on offer is proving tough - we are about halfway through the process and we will no doubt announce next week. One question that is met with glee is 'can they drive a tractor/forklift?' if not, are they prepared to learn? I had to, and it was fun to start with but the gloss soon wears off, after being sat on one for days at a time or when the fourth bottle truck of the day arrives in the yard....

Telehandler action at harvest 

Samples of our wines have been sent to Australia with a view to export. Scandanavia can't get enough of our bubbles, Germany, Japan and the USA have all taken substantial deliveries with more on their way. Prowein Dusseldorf and ProWine Singapore have both reaped new export markets for us

Immediately after bottling we start interviewing the vintage cellar crew - done by Skype as most of them are finishing off vintage in the southern hemisphere or travelling somewhere exotic en route back to the North. Then we start preparing ourselves for the next onslaught of grapes - this time with the Champenois looking over our shoulders....
Bring on VINTAGE 2016.

The French are invading (in the nicest possible way)

The first port of call for passengers of the Eurostar train arriving into London is no longer Waterloo, the station named for England's great defeat of the French in 1815, and London is often quoted as being the 6th largest French city in terms of population. One might surmise that we now welcome our neighbours from across La Manche. We certainly welcome their wines, in particular their bubbles from Champagne.

The UK is the second largest market for Champagne, beaten only by the French themselves. We can't get enough fizz of all qualities - Prosecco and Cava are also big in the UK - our thirst for bubbles is insatiable. But now we are making our own in ever-increasing volumes - still a blip on the chart compared to Champagne, but obviously enough to make the larger houses stand up and take notice.

Taittinger splashed onto the news recently with the announcement that they had bought land suitable for vines in Kent. This was followed a couple of weeks ago by Champagne Pommery and English Sparkling Winemaker Hattingley Valley (for whom yours truly is Head Winemaker) announcing a partnership starting with the upcoming 2016 harvest.

Contrary to some misreading of the announcement it does not mean that Pommery have bought Hattingley. As one of the largest contract winemaking facilities in the UK this deal just represents a very high profile, slightly-larger-than-normal winemaking contract for the team. It will bring scrutiny and a higher level of involvement from the client as for once they will have more experience than we do when it comes to making sparkling wine. It will not affect the way we make Hattingley wines and indeed, initial talks suggest their winemaking style is quite different to our own. For me and the team in the winery it is a chance to learn from winemakers who have been honing their skill for decades. We are toddlers by comparison in winemaking terms. We don't have to apply their methods to our own wines unless we decide we want to, but we will respect their decisions entirely when it comes to working on their wines.