The Juice May Edition

Vineyard in bloom and bottling boom

As we move from Spring to Summer, the risk of frost is now firmly behind us! It’s always a tense few weeks for the vineyard team, especially with the cold spell we experienced just before bud burst. We were very lucky that temperatures didn’t dip below 1 degree as the buds started to move so we avoided frost damage for the third year running.

In the warm and wet weather the vines are growing fast. We have enjoyed watching the shoots grow and the leaves unfold as the vines really spring to life. Next stage is flowering expected at the end of June which, so far, is showing great potential for another excellent year. More on this in our next update!

The winery has been buzzing with activity over the past few months. We’ve had our first round of disgorgement when excess yeast in the bottles is removed after their second fermentation and corks are inserted. Bottles are then squirreled away again to age under cork before being released for sale.

We plan to bottle more this year than ever before so we have decided to phase the process over two separate bottlings. The first phase has just been completed and went very well. We use crown caps to seal the wine in the bottles at this point before they are moved to our cellar to age on lees and for secondary fermentation to take place.

There’s no time to rest for the winery team as the next batch of blending and bottling begins!

Tune in to our next update in July when we’ll share glorious images of the vineyard!