The Grapes!

If you are reading this, you are most likely viewing the notice about the grapes, wondering what more you'll find online.

For your trouble, let me tell you a little bit more about making the wine.

The process starts with collecting the grapes.  We pick them as they ripen, so only the ripe ones make it into the wine.  Each bunch is carefully prepared so that any spiders, snails or bird damaged grapes are removed before the treading.



Treading is surprisingly quite a strange slimy feeling underfoot, but most enjoyable and no doubt good for the skin. We do of course clean feet before hand as its wine we are making, not cheese!

The crushed grapes are sterilised, and then started with some yeast in a large tub. After a couple of days we syphon off the liquid into demijohns to continue fermenting, whilst the skins and pips find their way onto the compost heap.

Fermentation is slow over the winter months, but we do monthly checks, until it tastes like wine. We tend to add a little sugar to compensate for the UK climate when the grapes were ripening.

Eventually the fermentation is completely finished, and the wine is bottled ready for drinking.  The 2023 crop is expected to fill around 20 bottles once fully bottled.