2014 harvest report

There is no doubt that 2014 will go down as a truly good year for English wines, and at Davenport this is certainly true. The weather gave us everything we could want this year: warm spring, no late frosts, dry weather during flowering, hot weather during July, some rain in August (OK, a bit too much!) and one of the driest Septembers on record.

As a result we started picking a week early and even picked some Chardonnay in September. Yields were high across every grape variety and sugar levels were very acceptable. Unlike 2003 when the grapes ripened too fast, this year the flavours were able to develop along with the acidity levels dropping, so we have been able to harvest grapes close to exactly where we want them.

By mid October the weather turned colder and a bit wetter, but there was almost no mildew and the starlings stayed away, so we got on with picking and kept the fruit in good condition.

Some statistics:
total crop was 37.6 tonnes, averaging 2.07 tonnes per acre

ripest grapes: Pinot Noir at 89 oeschle

least ripe grapes: Auxerrois at 60 oeschle

finished picking 20th October

We will be making our Horsmonden dry white wine, a Limney Estate sparkling wine and a Diamond Fields Pinot Noir red wine this year (in great demand last time we made it in 2010). We are also planning a sparkling Rose as a new wine for release in a couple of years. All the wines are fermented separately and we will decide final blends after Christmas, so we may also decide to produce some small volume single grape variety wines if there is anything that stands out as outstanding quality on its own.

Many thanks to our absolutely great team of pickers this year. We hope all have enjoyed themselves and it has certainly made our lives easier knowing that we have their support and enthusiasm. Also many thanks for the hard work of our own vineyard and winery team (Phil, Matt, Marcus, Ben and Ian), who have put in early mornings, late nights and heaved 37 tonnes of grapes out of the vineyard and into the press.

 The picture below shows some of the picking team on one of the few days when picking had to be stopped for rain - all smiling, maybe because we had decided to stop picking a few minutes earlier!

2014 grape harvest at Limney

harvest started

Ripe Siegerrebe grapes

After a near-perfect summer, we started grape picking on Friday 19th September. The early spring and hot July have ripened the grapes about a week earlier than usual and produced some high sugar levels. Some heavy rainfall in August thankfully cooled things down, otherwise we might have been picking even earlier!

The 2.5 tonnes of Siegerrebe was picked and loaded into the press on Friday. We have left it to soak overnight before pressing in order to extract the maximum amount of flavour from the grape skins.

Siegerrebe is one of the earliest ripening grape varieties grown in England and has a bronze colour and wonderful pungent aroma of lychees and peach. This variety normally makes up about 20% of the Horsmonden dry white wine. Despite the coloured grapes the juice is white, so no colour shows up after pressing.

The juice will be left in tank to ferment with the yeasts that are naturally on the grape skins. Apart from keeping a close eye on it, this tank can now be left to get on with fermentation, a process that takes from 3 weeks to 6 months depending on the vigour of the yeast.

Next week we will be picking Ortega and possibly some early Pinot Noir.

Soil Association Organic Awards

Our 2013 Horsmonden dry white wine has reached the final of the Soil Association Organic Awards and we need your help. It is a great achievement to reach the final, but we would like to be the overall winner.

The eventual winner of the alcoholic drinks category will be decided by a public vote. The products have already been short-listed based on our organic and environmental standards and also a tasting by a panel of judges.

This competition is very important to us because it is the only event that judges the products on their sustainability and ethical credentials as well as the wine needing to taste great.

You can vote by following this link to the Organic Awards web site or click on the "Vote For Us logo" above. Voting closes on the 30th September.

Any votes will be hugely appreciated - thank you!

A good day at the UKVA wine awards this week

receiving the Vintners Trophy for the best sparkling wine

and the Gore Browne Trophy for the wine of the year

2009 Davenport Limney Estate (already opened)

Best UK sparkling wine!!!

Celebrating the Limney Estate - best sparkling wine trophy

The UKVA wine of the year competition results were announced today and we are absolutely thrilled to find that our very own 2009 Limney Estate sparkling wine has won the Vintners Trophy for the "most outstanding sparkling wine" in the competition.

This is a massive credit to all the hard work that is done in the vineyard and I quote from Stephen Skelton's new book Winegrowing in Great Britain (an excellent guide to starting a vineyard by the way), "If the growing of vines in a challenging climate such as the UK's could be described as brave, then the growing of vines organically might be considered by some as tempting fate". Our wine is the first organic wine ever to win a major trophy in this competition. It is also the third time we have won a Gold medal with our organic sparkling wine - no other vineyard can equal that. Tempting fate?

I would say that the quality of a wine is largely decided in the vineyard and this is possibly where our organic approach makes us different to most UK producers. I have included a photo of the team: myself, Marcus and Philip enjoying a glass of chilled award-winning sparkling wine in the vineyard this afternoon - not to forget Matt, Ian and Ben who are also valuable part-time members of the team.

The competition was judged by 6 MW's, chaired by Anthony Foster and they tasted 205 English wines to decide the eventual winners. 15 Gold Medals were awarded. More details about the competition can be found at the English wine producers web site . The awards presentation takes place at the House of Lords in July.

 All looking good as we get into Spring

Young flower buds on the Pinot Noir

 It seems very busy in the vineyard at the moment. Pruning finished on time, buds burst slightly early and, while bottling last years wine got underway we had to cope with the threat of frost. For the first time ever we actually lit frost burners in the vineyard overnight and probably just as well because the vines were saved from the freezing temperatures. The photo above shows two large flower buds on a young shoot and this is seen all over the vineyard, predicting a good yield for 2014 if all goes well. I am always aware that the weather can find a multitude of ways to reduce the crop over the summer, primarily by persistently raining during the crucial flowering period (end of June) as happened in 2012. So far so good for 2014.

 

After a year of "out of stock" being written all over our web site, it is a massive pleasure to be able to put our 2013 still wines out for sale. The Horsmonden dry white is tasting fantastic, really fresh and zesty with citrus flavours and great length. I am sure it will mellow over the next 6 to 12 months as it matures and I really look forward to seeing it develop.

New to this year is our 2013 Pinot Noir Rosé, made from a 2 acre plot of organic Pinot Noir vines at Horsmonden, this shows true Pinot varietal character while being fresh and with a dry balance - just perfect for the summer.

These are both available on our web site along with the 2009 Limney Estate sparkling wine and the last few cases of the 2011 blanc de blancs. Please remember that orders of 12 bottles or more get a free delivery, including mixed cases.

As if we aren't busy enough, we also found time to show our wines at the Real Wine Fair, meeting customers and wine enthusiasts as well as chatting with like-minded winemakers from all over the World. Many thanks to the guys from Les Caves de Pyrenne for inviting us. I can recommend it to anyone interested in organic, biodynamic and naturally made wines. Fascinating and fun.

Our 2009 Limney Estate sparkling wine has been chosen by Claridges for their new restaurant "Fera" run by Simon Rogan. I was especially pleased to see the wine list includes so many wines that I admire, putting us in the company of the best. As we go through the year I hope we will be able to see our wines in several more new shops and restaurants - I'll let you know.

Also, look out for the Telegraph on Saturday 24th May because Hamish Anderson is promising to include the 2013 Horsmonden dry white in his article.

Spring update

The grapes picked last October were considered good, even if we had to pick late to get every bit of ripeness. However we have stuck to our natural approach to winemaking and the end results are more impressive than I had hoped for. The Horsmonden dry white has real complexity, with layers of flavours of apple and limes with our trademark mineral yeasty background. We bottled the first run of this wine last week (see photo with the new labels) and it will be back in stock on the web site very soon (at last!)

 

In the vineyard the winter has been frustrating. The freezing temperatures we are used to were replaced by a years rainfall over three months. However pruning is complete and we are just tying the canes onto the wires in time for bud-burst. The vineyards are looking very tidy - well set up for the coming summer.

 

COME AND TASTE THE NEW WINES IN LONDON

We will be showing our 2013 dry white and the 2009 Limney Estate sparkling wine at the Real Wine Fair next weekend in London. Not only is this a chance to try our wines, but there will be an array of fantastic organic, biodynamic and natural wines from producers around the world. The date is Sunday 13th April for the public and Monday 14th for the wine trade. For ticket information go to http://therealwinefair.com/

harvest 2013 - the details

picking the Bacchus

Now all the grapes are in the winery, pressed and mostly fermented it is time to reflect on the last season.

2013 has been a year of its own difficulties, a cold late spring delayed bud-burst, followed by a hot dry mid summer and the wettest and least sunny autumn we have recorded over the last 4 years. 

The good stuff: the grapes kept disease-free and amazingly the birds showed no interest in eating them, allowing us the luxury of leaving the fruit longer on the vines without risk of harm. This was just as well because they ripened very late and slowly in the damp and cloudy October. Picking started a week later than normal and finished on the 6th November - at least a week later than we have been used to. Many, many thanks to all those who came out to help picking; it doesn't really need saying that we couldn't do it without your help!

Ortega grapes ready to go to the winery

Sugar levels are a little lower than we achieve in the hotter years and acids maybe a little higher, however the wines taste balanced and full flavoured. In the end as the wines come through fermentation, we are seeing some beautiful delicate aromas and full length of interesting fruit characters. Overall the 2013 wines are showing a lot of promise at this stage.

The storm at the end of October did cause a few problems in that our electricity was disrupted for 2 days and we had to press grapes and work through the night by torch and candle light. Luckily we have a generator that can power the winery machinery (but not the lighting) so we could continue picking through the power cut. Even after 20 years of making wine, this was the first time I have had to work in the dark.

winery at night by torchlight ....

.... and by candle-light

The yield from the vineyard didn't quite match 2006 or 2010, but was very close to our best years and due to the 2007 planted vines coming into full production, the volume of wine from this year is a significant improvement on previous years.

As usual we have made the dry white wines without any winery additives - no yeast, sulphur dioxide, enzymes or fining agents. The press that we installed 3 years ago has allowed us to press the grapes very slowly and gently to maximise flavours.

I expect to produce a Horsmonden dry white wine, two different sparkling wine blends (a Blanc de blancs and our Limney Estate blend) and for the first time in many years we are making a small amount of Rose wine from our Pinot Noir grapes at Diamond Field.

Harvest started at last!

Today in the sunshine we had our first day picking as promised. A lovely warm day and lots of organic grapes. The Siegerrebe makes up a crucial part of our Horsmonden dry white wine blend as it has a soft acidity and a delicious aromatic style. It will make up about 15% of the blend.

This years crop of Siegerrebe has been wonderful - no mildew, very little bird damage and a good yield at around 2kgs per vine. The grapes are taken straight to the winery at Rotherfield where the press is loaded and started immediately. The photo above shows the juice running from the press. This juice will be settled overnight and then we hope fermentation will start spontaneously without the need for adding yeast.

Thanks to all who helped with picking today - fantastic job. I hope you will want to return for the next day picking (we will probably have 2 or 3 days picking next week).

Grape picking starts next week!

Siegerrebe grapes ready to pick

Pinot Noir - a week to go at least

After one of the sunniest summers this year we find that the grapes are slightly late in their ripening this year. We have been extremely patient watching the grapes in a week when we would normally be madly picking. Our first variety to pick is Siegerrebe which we normally harvest around the 20th September. This year it is still unpicked with a harvest planned for Monday the 7th October - the latest ever for this variety. The reason for this is the cold wet weather in the Spring that we've probably forgotten about by now. Bud burst was a fortnight behind normal and flowering was also late. Often the vines catch up from a slow start, but this year they haven't managed it. :Luckily the weather is looking OK into mid October so we can afford to wait.

The great news is that we have a good crop of healthy grapes - one of the biggest crops I have seen on our vines. This is true across almost all varieties, the exception being the Pinot Noir at our Rotherfield site where we have been fighting a war against Downy mildew all summer. The winner of this war is yet to be decided, but we have used copper fungicide (allowed under Soil Association rules) and many hours of thinning out the vines.

Picking is done by hand with fine secateurs, and we are always interested to hear from anyone interested in doing a day picking. We try to chose sunny days so the grapes arrive at the winery dry. We will have about 7 days picking spread through October. Please get in touch if you're interested.

Today sees the commisioning of our second solar panel system, installed on the sunniest day so far this year. It was switched on and immediately started clocking up the kilowatts. Our total generation capacity has just doubled to 15 Kw.

Last year we had an energy use audit done on our winery, including the energy used in the vineyard  (tractor diesel etc). It makes a long and complicated (possibly dull to some) read but came up with the conclusion that we are energy neutral. The solar panels on the winery roof generate as much energy as we use to make our wines. Now with double the solar panels, we will be generating a big surplus which gets sent back to the electricity grid for use by others.

We are constantly looking for ways to minimise electricity consumption, further increasing our efficiency and reducing the carbon footprint of each bottle of our wine. The winery is now fitted with LED lighting, replacing our old lights and halving the running cost of lighting in the winter. Also the cooling system in the winery runs on a water based system (sometimes called a swamp chiller) which uses a small fraction of the energy used by air conditioning.

I could go on about lightweight glass bottles, recycled cardboard cartons, sustainable natural corks - all of these use energy to produce and ship to the UK and so we make great efforts to be as sustainable as possible at all stages of winemaking, from the vineyard / glass factory / cork forest right through to delivering the wine to your door.

Pruning

We are finishing pruning today in the snow! The end of a task that started at the beginning of December, with 20000 vines to prune. Each vine is pruned back to two canes which will produce this seasons crop. All the rest is cut off and mulched into the soil. I find pruning on a clear sunny (but normally cold) day is a real pleasure, but this year we have have plenty of snow and rain plus very cold temperatures, we are all pleased to be finished.

As the vines get older we are training new trunks up to the wire so that we can renew as much of the old wood as possible and remove any diseases in the trunk wood. Every pruning cut is also painted with Trichoderma, a beneficial fungi that helps to prevent harmful spores infecting pruning cuts.

Talking of sunshine, I have just ordered some more solar panels for the winery roof. Ever the optimist, I am hoping we can not only produce enough electricity for the winery but also offset the carbon emmisions for the vineyard tractors as well. The new panels should be up and running by the nd of April, ready for the late Spring heatwave.

My first blog entry.

This blog is hopefully to record the events that happen in the running of our vineyard and winery over the year. I hope to post a new entry every 2 to 4 weeks and let you know of events we are attending, stages in the vineyard year, some technical stuff about our organic vines, problems that inevitably happen as well as the good things too.

If you want to see anything in the blog, please ask and I will do my best to include your requests.

Please follow this blog and you will be updated when new postings are made - all are welcome.

Our vineyard sheep arrived last week and are busy eating the grass under the vines so we can start the year with a clean vineyard floor. The sheep are Wiltshire Horns, an old English breed that seem to enjoy our cold weather. They are on loan from a local breeder, but we hope in future to start our own flock.