Vine to Wine: August

Welcome to the Vine to Wine Series.

In this series, Alice sits down with winemaker Gavin Patterson monthly, to talk about what is happening in the Vineyard and Winery.

This month: August 

THE VINEYARD: 

Despite being promised good sunshine and warm weather for August, the month ended up being mostly wet and gloomy. This meant that the vineyard team had to keep ontop of canopy management, as the wet weather meant the vines grew lots of foliage and greenery. This excess foliage had to be controlled and trimmed regularly by the vineyard team to promote a healthy vine canopy. At the same time, there was moderate leaf removal, which isn’t common practice, but was necessary due to the amount of foliage growth. Thanks to the wet weather and intermittent days of sunshine, photosynthesis occurred, meaning the vine was active in creating starch which adds flavours to the grape.

Gavin is pleased to report that grape bunches are healthy and the work him and the team are doing lay down the conditions to ensure crops ripen fully. Gavin goes on to say that the lack of sunlight has been a worry but he is pleased to say that there is an excellent yield hanging on the vines this year.

Inevitably the wet weather has caused some mildewy disease which can be eradicated by continued aeration in the vineyard. Gavin says the team and the vineyard have had some tough conditions within the wet summer months, but he is pleased with the amount of production going forward. He ends to say that him and the team are always happy to rise to the challenge and have prevailed.

THE WINERY:

The winery has been busy for the month of August, with Gavin and the team bottling the 2022 Suzanne Rosé, bottling the last of the 2022 Evolution which has now produced 14,000 bottles and 300 Magnum bottles. Gavin goes onto say, that he has racked the 2022 Chardonnay and 2022 Pinot Noir, which have been removed from the Amphora vessels and placed into tanks allowing the wine to settle before being prepped for bottling in September.

Gavin states that the 2022 wine vintages has surprised him and are looking to be very exciting with good flavours and beautiful balance between acidity and mouth feel.