Monday this week brought with it two of the more exciting and also nail-biting deliveries of the year. 16,800 glass bottles for our still wines, just in time for the first round of bottling next week. After the lorry arrives, so begins the performance of a very tense forklift ballet to lower the pallets to the safety of the ground… Its actually not that bad, and the driver was very patient. Thank you Chapmans. Bottles are all good and exciting, but not much use without something to seal them. The second delivery was a similar number of corks! This time resplendent with an updated printed design.

Whilst everything really comes together when the labels are finally applied to the bottles, this is an important moment. It marks those wines as finished, being laid down to rest a while before they are released and we finally get to share them. A great deal of care and passion from an array of people goes into getting the wines to this stage, and there are some beautiful things to share.

Outside its sun sun sun and the vines know it. This weather is driving the vines onwards and growth is a little ahead of where we usually are at this point in the year. Bud-rubbing and shoot selection are the two big jobs in the vineyard at the moment. Bud-rubbing removes those growing from the base and trunk of the vine, and shoot selection is where we thin out the growth at the crown to improve air flow, and focus the vines energy. These vineyard jobs come in waves, reassuringly persistent. The season is well underway.

Tierney Beames | Wine Manager