What you can find in the vineyard
With vines lasting beyond thirty years and the type planted determining the type and quality of wine produced this was a tricky decision. There are over 10,000 different varieties and clones to choose from!
Luckily our resident Master of Wine with decades of experience working with similar limestone soils in France helped guide us through this decision. We are really excited by our range of varieties.
Red skinned grapes
Pinot Noir Précoce- with over a 1000 clones of Pinot Noir it’s easy to get it wrong. However this is an early maturing variety suited for our climate. Lovely light- bodied wine with a complex cherry raspberry taste.
Cabaret Noir- our second red could be the game changer variety for the English wine industry. A fruit bomb of taste, with more body and tannins than the Pinot Noir and a spicey finish. We can’t wait to see what this will do here.
For our sparkling wine range we have decided to grow a sparkling Pinot Noir variety and Pinot Meunier to produce Blanc de Noir. These red grapes will be pressed but their skins will be taken out straight away- giving rise to its name “white out of red”! We decided we would like to offer a different sparkling wine and Blanc de Noir offers a richer taste and suits our climate and soil.
We could also make a sparkling rose with these flavours- again this will depend on what our members want to taste!
White skinned grapes
Bacchus - this variety is really finding its home in England. An English vineyard won the best single white wine in the world with this in 2015! Similar to a New Zealand sauvignon blanc can have an elderflower, apple, citrus taste with a hint of spice on the palate. This grape has become a summer favourite among all who try it.
Ortega - our second white wine and a great balancer to the Bacchus. This wine will have creamer taste and wonderful aroma of vanilla. This could also be made into a dessert wine if our members want to try something different.