2010

What a year we are having! We escaped major frost damage by the skin of our teeth on 10, 11 and 12 May - about 10 - 20 % of the flowering buds were lost. Some of you may remember that we lost 100% of our buds on 11 May in 2005, so these were sleepless nights for us. Perfect weather for fruit-set and a wonderful early summer got the grapes off to an excellent start. When they came the rains were welcome and now the weather is set fair for the next couple of weeks and the grapes are already ripening. As Dorothea Fisher (the original owner of the vineyard) commented last weekend when she came round - the grapes are tasting as they should at the end of September, not the end of August. So we can expect an early harvest. The current challenges are with the wasps, birds and botrytis which are all making in-roads into the crop.

2008 VINTAGE

The weather during flowering in 2008 was even worse than in 2007. The result was an even smaller (though, thanks to the decent autumn, good quality) crop. However, as you will see below we are trying to make the best of this but unfortunately, the fruits of our labour will not be available until 2010

Finally, after 12 years Bothy Vineyard is poised to produce its own sparkling wine again. The 2008 climatic conditions produced small quantities of ripe and flavourful grapes, but with a fair degree of acidity.  So we have decided to forego this year’s still white wine sales to make a celebratory tipple.

We made the wine base here at the Vineyard, then shipped it off to Three Choirs Vineyard (Gloucestershire) where the bottling and the second fermentation in bottle is taking place. We will be going to Three Choirs at the end of Summer to check on the progress and decide on the dosage – that is the level of dryness. It will probably not be disgorged until the winter.

2008 was the first year that we cropped our young red vines to produce a red wine. It is made up a blend of juice from Dornfelder, Regent, Rondo and Dunkenfelder, all varieties selected by Richard for the UK climate and to complement each other in a blend. The juice went through a normal warm fermentation, followed by a complete malolactic fermentation to remove the harsher acids. Since then the wine has been stored in new French oak barrels to mature. This is an expensive option – each barrel costs £500 but barrels impart flavour, adds structure and also provide gentle micro-oxygenation which further softens the wine.

The vines which we planted in 2008 (Solaris and Acalon), replacing the Optima, have made good progress but will not be fruiting until at least next year. This spring we have slightly expanded our small planting of Kerner (to crop in 2011/2012) and added about 300 trees as a shelter belts, some to coppice in future years, and to further encourage wildlife.

Winter 2008

This winter we have been replacing the block of Optima which we removed in 2006.  We shall be planting a new white variety called Solaris, an additional red variety called Acolon, and boosting our plantings of Kerner.  We are also replacing diseased vines in our block of Findling (which we have recently discovered to be Hungarian rather than German!).

We are currently selectively enriching the soil and reintroducing its organic structure by spreading just under 200 tonnes of compost!  A slow task!

spreading compost down snow dusted rows Loading compost into the spreader, over and over again.

2007 Vintage
The year started well enough - a warm early spring brought the buds on and fortunately, there were no late frosts!  There were hopes of generous flowering this year following the long hours of sunshine which characterised the summer of 2006 (the size of the flower bunches being determined by the amount of sunshine received in the previous year).  However, it rained heavily in June and July over the flowering period.  The vines tried their best to set fruit but as with everywhere else in England, this was sporadic and occurred over a very long period.

Harvest arrived early - our Ortega and Findling managed to ripen their greatly reduced load of grapes by the end of September.  Pickers happily picked a small harvest of grapes packed with sugar and flavour - if fermented dry we would have achieved an alcohol level of 13.5%.  We have turned this into a luscious medium white which we have named The Paradox.

The other varieties, which faired better in setting fruit, ripened gradually throughout October.  Due to the uneven fruit set we picked some varieties more than once to ensure only ripe grapes made it to the press.  Our Bacchus bore fruit for the first time and we have blended its wine in with the Huxelrube and  Perle to make a very full bodied 2007 Oxford Dry.

Although we plucked as many flowers off our young red vines as we possibly could, some were missed.  The few bunches which did set were picked and made into a very exciting new blend.  Only 30 litres were produced and we have made it into a rosé by blending some white wine made from Huxelrube and a hint of Ortega.  This elegant, dry wine has been named Oxford Pink.

New Vines
As mentioned earlier the vines planted three and a half years ago are gradually maturing - and we cropped the Bacchus for the first time in 2007.  It is likely that we will be cropping from all the three year olds (Bacchus and Ortega), which have matured  to such a point that they can now do with minimal protection from rabbits.  However, they will not reach their maximum production for a couple more years, and the flavours of the wines produced from these will continue to develop for many, many more years.

The three year old Reds, as predicted, are slower but again, we hope to crop from them this year.  Many still need heavy training to get their "old wood" into a proper state.  Interestingly, their leaves turned a fabulous array of reds, yellows and oranges in the autumn!

As for the newest vines to be planted, it will be simply a matter of keeping them well fed and protected from the ravenous rabbits, deer and snails!

Michael Calderbank pictured on left, helping with the training of the new vines in their first year.

Written April 2009