GuytheGrape

Double Guyot. When we planted at Higher Plot we chose a system called Double Guyot. Not because it had my name in the title but just because that's what French people did.  Not exactly scientific but as good as anything to start with as it wouldn't stress the vines too much. What we have found is that the plants are happy here, maybe too happy and we can't have that. They give a good yield of grapes but they are also pretty vigorous growing lots of greenery and there's no market for leaves unless you are a Dolmades producer. What we need to do is to transfer that energy into extra grapes. Scott Henry This year we're experimenting with double decker vines. This will mean more shoots but shorter ones. This has benefits in that less greenery means that there's better airflow which reduces the risk of disease and also potentially better quality as there's less shading and more light to ripen the grapes. Just to name drop, it was recommended to us ...

Thanks to Liz Weber for the Picture. Thinking back on the difficulties of  growing grapes in 2012 anybody sane would have just put the secateurs away, polished the tractor and opened a bottle of 2011 Rosé in memory of sunnier times and then sat in front of the telly for the whole "summer". All the way from late April to the end of September it has been like a stuck record - as long as the weather improves from now then all will be well but, it never did. Twice the work for half the crop. That just about sums up 2012 for us. But looking back we do have reason to be quite happy. The site has withstood all the ravages of the worst summer for 100 years and still produced 1.5 tons of clean ripe quality grapes that will make quality wine. This is remarkable considering some illustrious names have made nothing at all and others are up to 90% down. You can always tell that it's a low volume year when we drop off the crop at the winery. There are normally stressed people in v...

Roger Wilkins - by Banksy? There's a bit of a Cider and Perry revolution going on the West Country. We went to Wilkins cider farm this weekend. Tasted straight from the vat it's  fresh, clean and completely delicious. Unfortunately within a day of bringing it home it oxidises and starts refermenting. It's not undrinkable but certainly not nearly as good as when freshly drawn. That's because it's natural and alive and not a heavily processed product. It is often the same when you taste bulk wine - it's full of flavour but if you bottled it unchanged you run risks of the wine having tartrate cristals, being cloudy or even exploding. This made me think about the debate raging (do wine bloggers have the energy to rage?) about "natural" wine.   We have all heard about wine not travelling and drunk something great on holiday that is dull and lifeless when you get home - a bit like me. This must be to do with surroundings but also, when somebody knows th...

On Saturday we tasted our wine. It's not difficult to describe the emotions that we were going through,  we were quite quiet in the car as we drove off the motorway. To be honest there was more trepidation than excitement. Up until this point you really can't be absolutely certain what your land is going to produce. You know that in theory it is a great site and also that the grapes were ripe and balanced but every vineyard brings it's own distinctive charateristcs that come through in the wine. In Burgundy a Grand cru vineyard can be 200 yards away from a simple Villages plot that sells for a quarter of the price. Over the years (centuries) owners have been able to track in detail which site does best. This was the time to see for the first time what, if anything, would stand out. We were tasting with Martin Fowke who has a better perspective than us as he has a hand in wines from 30-30 vineyards each year. Making sparkling wine, most producers a...

If you saw Countryfile on the BBC two weeks ago they had a feature on English wine and filmed a vineyard owner delivering his grapes to Three Choirs Winery in Gloucestershire. Four weeks ago - that was me. Tasting the Juice, taking a hydrometer mesurement and generally trying to take it in despite more tired  than running the marathon.Three years work sitting in  9 plastic bins outside a winery in Gloucestershire on a cold wet Sunday morning. At least Martin the winemaker had the good grace to comment on how good the fruit  looked before carting them off on the forklift. This is one of the Chardonnay bins being loaded into the crusher which also takes off the stems. Two days of nagging people to handle the grapes so that they don't get damaged undone in about 2 minutes and the result is -----   SPLURGE 1  Ahem - yes, the gentle moving of the precious juice using nothing but the force of gravity that delicately transports th...

 8.00am October 2nd Aller Hill.  Times are very strange at Higher Plot Farm. For example, this Sunday we got up late, read the papers, went for a great walk in the countryside and then cooked a late Sunday lunch before consuming as much period drama and Antique roadshow as is possible for two people. It seems like an eternity ago that we were spending every waking moment and even a few sleeping moments, worrying about ripeness and disease in the vines, transport of grapes, would we have enough pickers and enough Lassagne to feed them with. In the end - everybody that worked that day was brilliant if for no other reason but putting up with two overtired stressed out vineyard owners. Photos were taken by our friend Bernie Brough.  Beautifully Ripe Pinot Meunier.   Morning Frosts.   Obligatory Photo of ball obsessed Fred.  The result of all this labour  - 2500 or so litres of excellent quality white wine that is now taking a rest after firs...

This was us on ITV in spring 2009, new vines and lots of mud. 2010 no mud and a working vineyard.

So much of this year has been spent trying to keep the vines in check - they are obviously very happy in their new home. It is sometimes difficult to know how well they are doing but having visited a couple of other sites there can be little doubt that we will be producing some healthy fruit next year as long as the weather stays good. We have a few bunches this year and we'll keep some of the riper ones as an experiment to see what sort of problems we may encounter. They are just starting veraison ( changing colour and accumulating sugar) and we may be make a few litres of wine from them- strictly for our own consumption.

In May 2008 we planted 2700 Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier vines which we will make into sparkling wine. Our first real harvest will be in 2010 and the first wines should be ready a year and a half later. This year we hope to put up our trellising and also to plant 500 more vines to fill in a small gap at the side of the field. We are going for more Pinot Meunier and a tiny amount of Bachus to make a little still wine. Why Aller Hill? - most importantly it is south facing so that you get the maximum benefit of the sun late in the summer. It is also Calcerous Clay on a Limestone base which happens to be the same as the best white wine producing parts of burgundy. Lots of people speculate about minerals in soils affecting wine taste and quality - what the French call Terroir. I think that the most important thing is actually how the soil drains as this affects whether the vines produce wood or grapes. What we are trying to do is to keep the soil as alive as possible by keeping ...