Newsletter - March 2001

NEW ENGLISH QUALITY WINE MARQUE AWARDED

The English and Welsh wine producers have recently launched their "Quality Wine Marque" which is awarded to individual wines and wineries who consistently aim for high quality. You may see the marque (shown above) on bottles in retail outlets. This is an assurance that the wine has passed a clearly defined, independently assessed quality standard. This is great news for wine producers and English wine drinkers – it allows the quality-minded winemakers to guide their customers to the best English wines, and helps wine drinkers to avoid taking any risk in choosing an English wine. Several supermarkets have offered to support the new logo.

Some wineries have been allowed to use the logo on their letterheads and brochures, indicating that they are in favour of a quality-led attitude to wine production. We are very pleased to support this new marque and to be among the first English wineries to be accepted as achieving the required standard. Our Horsmonden dry and sparkling wine will be carrying the logo.

ORGANIC CONVERSION – OFFICIALLY IN PROGRESS

My last newsletter talked about our conversion to organic management. I can now say that we have been officially registered and inspected by the Soil Association. The inspection was a nervous time, although in the end we were accepted without any changes to our previous management practices. So the conversion period is now underway, and we will be able to make organic wine from our 2003 harvest. It seems ages away, but winemakers are used to talking in years when it comes to developing new products. In the mean time the grapes harvested next October will be "in conversion to organic" and these wines will be available for sale in 2002. This conversion period is required to ensure that any chemicals in the plants and soil have had time to be worked out of the system. I have expectations that our wines will see further flavour improvements as a result of organic management, and this is our main motivation for following this route.

2000 HARVEST UPDATE - A SURPRISING SUCCESS?

The 2000 wines are still in tank as I write this. We have managed to ferment the musts without chemical de-acidification or the use of cultured yeast, and all the vats are showing some promising flavours. Some of the wines have been allowed to stay on their lees for extra time (up to 7 months), which will help them to naturally stabilise and enable me to bottle them with a much reduced use of sulphur dioxide and no bentonite fining. To me this is another example of how a little thought and less reliance on chemicals can make a more natural product, and result in a better wine.

The surprise is that when we picked the grapes in the awful weather last October we were fearful that the rain might have been absorbed into the berries, resulting in a dilution of the flavours. However after the wettest harvest in most people’s memories, the wines show plenty of quality, and I confidently rate the wines as being better than 1996 or 1998.

WHERE YOU CAN FIND US IN 2001

Over the next few months we have booked to attend a few wine festivals. The dates are shown below, so please come along and find us if you can.

Leeds Castle Wine Festival, Leeds, Nr Maidstone, Kent

12th, 13th May telephone 01622 735616

English Wine Festival, Plumpton College, Nr Lewes, East Sussex

1st, 2nd September telephone 01323 870164

We are also hoping to be able to support a local farmer’s market in the summer. There are a few licensing problems to solve first.

RESULTS OF THE WEB SURVEY

Over the last 2 months we have included a question on our web site for visitors to answer. It asks what is the biggest attraction of English wines. We have had over 250 replies and the majority of visitors have highlighted 2 points. Firstly there is a strong feeling that English products should be supported (particularly over French wines) and secondly I was very pleased to get a lot of comments recognising the quality and freshness of English wines. I will submit a new question next month and report back on the results.

If there is any topic that you would like me to cover in future newsletters, please send me an e-mail. Any topic – technical or otherwise.

WILL DAVENPORT