Silverton Vineyard
Welcome to the page for a beautiful new English vineyard. In preparation since 2007, the f
Silverton Vineyard is situated in a 17 acre field, facing south on the slopes of the east end of the Raddon Hills. The soil is a free draining heavy clay with a lot of stone, and its sheltered aspect and even slope, all below 95m altitude, provides what we believe are optimum conditions for vines in this part of the world. So far we have planted Phoenix, a german hybrid, and Pinot Grigio, which should need no introduction!
23/09/2022
Outstanding harvest this year!
Now the canopy of the vines is coming on strong. Under azure summer skies, I am removing side shoots, thinning fruiting shoots, and trying to avoid stepping on funnel spiders. They build the most beautiful webs in the grass.
Well well. Corks are here! All the way from Portugal, fire-branded with Silverton logos! One step closer !
HARVEST THIS THURSDAY / FRIDAY!
It’s going to be easy to find all the grapes this year, because, as you can see, we have lost all foliage from the vines (thanks Ophelia), leaving the skeletal vines adorned with bunches of grapes alone. It’s quite an odd sight.
Yield this year is better than 2016, but the fruit is variable in ripeness. This seems to be because of a late frost this spring, that may have knocked out the primary fruiting shoots. Secondary shoots, that appeared to replace them, never give fruit as good the first. So while some grapes are browning and sweet, others remain green and acidic.
Sugar levels will be corrected in the first fermentation, and my hope is that a good spread of flavours across the crop, as in 2016, will give this vintage some structure on the palette, something we might accuse the bumper crop of 2014 of lacking somewhat.
Anyway, once again, we are very excited about this year’s crop - and hoping fervently to get some wine in shops by Christmas!
Summer pruning is 80% complete, the grapes are being exposed to the Indian summer weather, for a final month of ripening, before harvest in late October.
The spacing of the rows and height of the trellis are designed to allow standard tractors to pass through and to put the crop at a comfortable height for harvesting. However, we also chose this configuration because it can be converted to the Geneva Double Cordon system, in the next year or two.
GDC is a high yield system, training two high canopies, with grapes hanging, somewhat protected from the elements, with plenty of stem and leaf growth. See the attached sketch. We have found that where something like it has occurred already, with grapes hidden in foliage, the berries are at their best - larger, riper and free from rot. This is against convention, which is for the grapes to be exposed early. Where we have exposed the bunches to sun and rain earlier in the year, they are smaller and of a lower quality.
So, the pruning method we have settled on seems to work: Hard spur pruning in April, late summer pruning in September, which exposes the grapes to sun, harvesting in October, picking the grapes from a height c. 1.2 metres.
In years to come, when we switch to the GDC system, this schedule will probably remain, with canopies lifted and held wider apart. The grapes should hang in space below them, close to the "natural" structure of a vine.
In 2016 the amount of fruit was low, as was the case amongst all southern English vineyards, but ripening was perfect. No sugar (chapitalising) was required to make our base wine. This year quantity is greater (although not quite at 2014 volumes), and, if this weather can just hold for a few weeks, it looks like we will have quality too.
Release the flavour! Come and help us prune this week and the next - just a few hours would be great - what's in it for you? Booze and pasties and chattin in the gorgeous countryside?
Well, well.. no pictures yet, but it looks
like we shall have the first release of Silverton Sparkling Wine, for Xmas of this year. Stay tuned..
Blue skies in the vineyard, and ... First bunch of grapes for 2017! Sadly, on the wrong vine (one that's being regrown after a mowing accident), so off they come. But if there is one, there is a thousand :)
Late spur-pruning is well underway here. I leave it this late in the year because, if timed right, 90 % of buds have shown themselves, and I can remove the surplus in one pass.
The buds selected for growth into fruiting shoots are chosen by virtue of strength and location. I aim for 24 Spurs in total, per vine, each carrying one good bud, which will probably be the 2nd or 3rd bud from the joint with the main stem. Buds below this one, some of which can still be nearly invisibly small, are removed, rubbed off by hand.
Rogue buds will continue to sprout from the main trunk, and from junctions between shoot and branch. These should all be removed, an unending task, which can only be accomplished after they appear. There is no pre-emptive strike available. Hence my brinksmanship; any later in the year and I will have a jungle on my hands.
The chosen bud will become a vigorous green shoot, 6' long if allowed, carrying 1-3 bunches of grapes. These shoots themselves need to trimmed and denuded during the year, to limit the energy the plant puts into herbaceous growth, which should be secondary to fruit production.
The objective in pruning is to focus the plant's energies on the selected grapes, and to remove other growth. In limiting the numbers of grapes, one hastens the ripening, maximises size of the berries (grapes), improves the flavour of the juice, increases the proportion of sugars present, and hopefully brings the best of natural flavours and qualities to the wine.
up up and away...secateurs sharpened, vines being pruned, hot air balloon optional
GRAPE HARVEST THIS WEEKEND ST
SILVERTON VINEYARD
12-4PM SATURDAY AND SUNDAY
SILVERTON VINEYARD
JOIN US FOR COFFEE AT 11:30
LIGHT LUNCH AND BOOZE PROVIDED
chicken on a wire.png
GET THE GRAPES IN THE WINE, NOT THE CHICKENS!
IVAN - 07960 954051
Fabulous ripening weather here, hoping for a good harvest in a week or two
Meet our new members of staff at the vineyard: Olivier Giroud and his friend Iris.
They have been recruited to control weeds and keep the soil in good health naturally. Roosting in a special house on a trailer, scratching, feeding and hanging out in the shelter of the vines, the hens and their run will be moved around the vineyard throughout the year.
Their area is a strip contained by electric poultry fence, c. 2m wide by 50m long, with the vines in the middle. Chickens are descended from jungle fowl, I am told, so the plan is they will enjoy the ground underneath the vine canopy, keeping it clear and fertilised.
They have been with us a week, and we are learning how to look after them. We hope to get up to 24 rescue hens in the coming months, perhaps 100 in the long term, depending on the optimum density of chicken activity.
If we get it right, it will mean an end to strimming, and a sustainable, healthy way to look after the ground.
And they're off!
After the disappointment of last year, I approach this season's crop with trepidation. All it takes is a rainy July to hold ripening back terminally.
Nevertheless, the vines are in great shape right now, with the first fruit showing. A good couple of months of relative dryness and even maybe, possibly sunshine, and we will be in business again
In other news, wine is still on its way from the 2014 harvest. Building a winery was an unexpected challenge, which is very nearly complete!
the beginning of June and the vines are looking rather graceful with side shoots pruned out & healthy green growth above the wires, getting ready to produce this years crop.....blue skies help too :)
In the event, 2015 was a non-event, with NO harvest, due to poor August weather. But the vines are in good shape, after a late spring pruning.
We have high hopes as always for 2016, with production (as always, it seems) just a few months away.
well, september was mighty fine - now keeping a close eye on our grapes, testing for sugar levels, waiting for the optimum moment to harvest and turn them into some lip smacking fizz.....
everything crossed for a dry, sunny september now to ripen up these little beauties - hope to be harvesting in roughly 7 weeks time, so anyone who may fancy giving us a hand in return for some luncheon do get in touch :)
Any day now we will release our first wine, but on the meantime we are delighted to try the first jars of honey from Silverton Vineyard bees!
Expertly produced by Chris Lloyd, it is of course delightful !
'twas a moody sky at the vineyard yesterday, but the vines & roses were quite happy together....
the vines looking extremely graceful in their uniformity across the vineyard - rubbing out fresh shoots on the lower stems to concentrate growth on the upper fruiting spurs
A few images from this spring's growth. The Phoenix are full of vigour, and the spur pruning method working well.
beautiful winters day at the vineyard today - pruning is happening up and down the rows in preparation for the new growth that will take off once the days lengthen and warm - great to be working under such a big blue sky at the beginning of February :)
a beautiful & sunny December day at the vineyard today.....roses to plant, vines to prune :)
Lots to do in our little winery, particularly cleaning: making wine is joyously messy, sticky, business.
Today I was delighted to hear the first signs of vigour from a ferment we are running at a very low temperature of 12•
The aim of fermenting the juice at a lower temperature than normal is twofold:
1 From this batch we want a fruity, fresh tasting wine, low in tannins but acidic. We bunch-pressed the grapes and racked the juice before fermentation to use a clear juice from the start. We want to protect and promote the floral and fruity notes of grape, rather than the brutish tannins of stalk and seed.
Low temperature ferments are supposed to preserve complex and delicate fruit flavours in wine, whereas higher temperatures will tend to break down fruit compounds and release tannins. This makes sense if one thinks of the qualities of a good red wine, which will probably have been fermented at times above 20•. Red wine flavours will be prominently tannic and rich, low-acidic. Wonderful, but not desirable in sparkling white.
2. Temperature control is energy intensive. We want to use fully renewable direct solar energy to power our winery, so heating 1000s of litre of juice to 18-20• is a burden to be avoided if possible.
I have created a small water jacket for tank 3, which I used to briefly heat the base of the ferment, no more than 2• , to help start the ferment. Otherwise we have left the tanks to assume ambient temperature.
There is risk that the ambient temperature will fluctuate too much for the mass of fermenting must, and disrupt the yeast. The tank could get too cold over winter and put the yeast in hibernation. Or the ferment may become too hot, in a feedback loop of activation energy and yeast reproduction, like with Woody Allen in the kitchen scene of Sleeper.
Some form of renewable energy heat source to maintain the temperature, as well as good insulation, would be optimum.
For the moment the ferment is going along nicely. But we may want it to go quicker. We will measure the rate of sugar consumption and see what we see...
last few grapes hanging on, tasting mighty sweet & lovely in the vineyard today....
And we are off again! 65% done, pressings until midnight (causing me to miss a birthday party :(. ) but lovely afternoons picking in the mild weather. Come and join us before it's all over!
1350 litres in the tanks!
There is still plenty to come, but we are halfway through-ish. Another harvest tomorrow, and we will be approaching the final straight to the finishing line for harvest 2014. yay!
Harvest Blog:
Today - Picking from 12:00, as weather allows - picnic lunch provided for those so generous with their time. It is greatly appreciated.
Friday - rained off (we expect)
Saturday - LET'S SMASH IT. Weather looks good, so if you fancy joining in the fun, we would love to see you! Given a few helping hands, we can probably get a half a ton or more without too much trouble, now that we are up to speed.
More and more it comes: we have 1282 litres of juice pressed, representing approximately 35% of the harvest. It settles gently as I write, dropping impurities to the bottom of the tanks, waiting to be racked off, clean and pure, and set to ferment in the next week or so. A total in excess of 3800 litres is expected, over 5000 bottles of wine!
For three nights this week I have been in our makeshift winery late into the night, setting up, cleaning, pressing, pumping, analysing - unblocking drains (actually Kordian Tetkov did that bit). All very engrossing and exciting. The juice tastes great. It will need enriching (chapitalising - the addition of sugar to feed yeast, a standard procedure that happens almost every year), but its character is showing already: clean with moderate fruit, acidic, very good for a sparkling wine.
Hope to see you soon, and keep thinking happy thoughts about nice booze. I do.
Hey Wine maker dudes we will be out there on the hill tomorrow, picking from 11am to 4pm, and we would love to see you!
The usual rules apply: lunch and unlimited cups of tea are supplied, as well as great company in a bucolic country setting, on what is predicted to be a bright sunny autumn afternoon.
The entrance to the vineyard will probably be muddy and slippery, so we recommend parking in Silverton village, from which we can give you a lift up - just call us 07960 954051
We would love to see you!
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