Bolney Wine Estate
17-Oct-08 - A glorious autumn day: the sky cloudless and periwinkle blue, the sun bright and even quite warm if you're standing in it, and all of us asking where this weather was three months ago when the children were still on holiday from school. Oh, well...
There are few places as pleasant to be on such a day as an English vineyard, and such an one is what used to be called Booker's Vineyard in the village of Bolney in West Sussex. They're changing the name to the Bolney Wine Estate to avoid confusion with Bookers Cash and Carry Group, and it was the last day of the 2008 vintage.
The village of Bolney first, though: we got married in the summer of 1968, but in the first week of January we took a holiday to the south coast. We'd stayed with friends in London, and drove down the old A23 (before the present dual carriageway) towards Brighton, in no particular hurry. Mid-evening we decided to call in somewhere for a drink and discovered the Bolney Stage, an old coaching inn on what was then the main Brighton Road. I remember particularly the warmth inside on a cold night, a barrel of real ale on the bar, well-filled ham sandwiches and free peanuts (they go extremely well on a ham sandwich - I offered to buy some but the barman said they only gave them away), after which we continued on our journey to Brighton. We had excellent memories of that visit, and, only about 20 years later, I was on my way to the Devil's Dyke for a corporate day out and called in again (by this time the new road had been built and the pub was, effectively, on a side road). Little had changed, except that the bar had moved to the other side of the room and there were no ham sandwiches. I 'phoned Jill to let her know where I was, but I think she was unimpressed, as she wasn't there as well. My third visit was a mere 10 years later, when we were house-hunting on the south coast and, on the way back towards London, we called in again. By this time the Stage had taken on a rather dilapidated look - you know how it is when you go into a pub and somehow know that it's for sale? I looked it up on the internet and found that, indeed, it was - for something around £225,000, which was well out of our budget range in 1997 (probably just as well). It's now been smartened up and taken over by a small local chain called Blubeckers, and I popped round to see it although I didn't have time to make my fourth visit in 40 years. The memories of 1968 remain strong, however.
But anyway, back to the Bolney Wine Estate at the end of the 2008 harvest. The pickers were gathering the last of the Pinot Noir as our group was shown round by Duncan Monro, who freelances as a guide during the season. His knowledge is comprehensive, and he explained everything very thoroughly. The estate has 18 acres (7.3 hectares - sorry, I can only think in metric when it comes to vineyards) with a further 15 recently planted, which will make a total of 13.4 hectares when the vines come to maturity. Yield is more or less three tonnes per acre (to cut out the maths, that's about 50 hl/ha) and I was able to interview the winemaker, Samantha Linter, about the new vintage. Interestingly, as it turned out, I had been one of her lecturers when she was doing her diploma at Plumpton College. She was up to her neck in crushing and fermentation but took a few minutes out for a chat (this will be broadcast on Splash FM on Sunday 9th November) and she seemed very positive about the new vintage: although we had a relatively sunless summer, average temperatures were quite warm, and a help to slow but effective ripening, such that some varieties didn't need any chaptalisation.
Samantha Linter at work in the winery
After the tour we headed back to the visitor centre, which is a pleasant, airy, conservatory-type building, for the tasting. On the regular tour visitors get to taste four of the wines, but production is so small that some of the wines sell out very quickly. As with all English vineyards, there is not one jot of support from the government, and the wines pay the same taxes and duty as imported wines (this is not the case in other European countries), so price is always a critical factor, but even so there is value to be had and, on our visit, two or three wines were no longer available. The estate's policy is to sell all its wines as 'regional' even though they qualify for QWPSR status. The UK, however, has only two QWPSR zones ('England' and 'Wales'), and Bolney want to emphasise that this is Sussex wine, so they are bottled as 'Sussex Regional Wine', which legally ranks alongside the European Vin de Pays/Indicazione Geogràfica Tìpica/Vino de la Tierra etc. These are the wines we tasted:
1) Autumn Spice 2007 - 11.5% abv - £7.95 - Müller-Thurgau/Schönberger/Wurzer
Almost colourless//gentle, spicy, aromatic//very clean, crisp, delicious, bone dry but with a hint of aromatic fruit, crisp acidity on finish. Very pleasant. This is their best-selling white wine.
2) Dark Harvest 2004 - 11% abv - £7.95 - Rondo/Dornfelder - £7.95
Light purple//some dark, damsony fruit, hint of wood//some fresh tannins on mid-palate, clean, delicate, 'stone-fruit' style. Very light and a bit austere on the finish. This is their best-selling red.
3) Blackbird Merlot - 2006 - 12% abv - £9.99
Light purple//dark, liquorice, rather austere, slight 'clinical' hints//very austere tannins, but good structure and there is some complexity on the finish. The first vintage of Merlot was in 2005, and at that time it wasn't a permitted variety in English vineyards, so they had to call it Blackbird (merle, geddit?). Now, however, Merlot is a permitted variety, hence the expanded name.
4) Bolney Bubbly 2006 - 12.5% abv - £15.00 - Seyval Blanc with 12 months on the lees. Residual sugar 12 g/l.
Very pale straw, almost colourless, modest mousse//'chalky' aromas, hint of sweetness - almost honeyed//but good, bone dry, and fairly hefty on mid-palate. Nice, fresh, crisp finish.
5) Pinot Noir 2006 - 12% abv - £9.99
Pale ruby//lovely classic cool-climate Pinot Noir nose, almost musky, beeswax//rather austere on foretaste but some lipsmacking fruit on the mid-palate. Gentle, aromatic finish. This has sold out but they managed to find a bottle from the secret store.
Duncan explained that, although it's sparkling English wine which is making the headlines (and they produce four sparklers here) their main interest is in red wines, which is something of a departure in England. Samantha firmly believes that Pinot Noir is the one to watch for the future and, on this showing, it seems to have considerable potential.
This was an excellent day out, even though I couldn't stay for lunch, and I also swapped a technical spreadsheet with Samantha for a bottle of Bart's Bubbly Rosé sparkling, which is currently in the fridge awaiting further investigation.
The last Pinot Noir of summer
There are few places as pleasant to be on such a day as an English vineyard, and such an one is what used to be called Booker's Vineyard in the village of Bolney in West Sussex. They're changing the name to the Bolney Wine Estate to avoid confusion with Bookers Cash and Carry Group, and it was the last day of the 2008 vintage.
The village of Bolney first, though: we got married in the summer of 1968, but in the first week of January we took a holiday to the south coast. We'd stayed with friends in London, and drove down the old A23 (before the present dual carriageway) towards Brighton, in no particular hurry. Mid-evening we decided to call in somewhere for a drink and discovered the Bolney Stage, an old coaching inn on what was then the main Brighton Road. I remember particularly the warmth inside on a cold night, a barrel of real ale on the bar, well-filled ham sandwiches and free peanuts (they go extremely well on a ham sandwich - I offered to buy some but the barman said they only gave them away), after which we continued on our journey to Brighton. We had excellent memories of that visit, and, only about 20 years later, I was on my way to the Devil's Dyke for a corporate day out and called in again (by this time the new road had been built and the pub was, effectively, on a side road). Little had changed, except that the bar had moved to the other side of the room and there were no ham sandwiches. I 'phoned Jill to let her know where I was, but I think she was unimpressed, as she wasn't there as well. My third visit was a mere 10 years later, when we were house-hunting on the south coast and, on the way back towards London, we called in again. By this time the Stage had taken on a rather dilapidated look - you know how it is when you go into a pub and somehow know that it's for sale? I looked it up on the internet and found that, indeed, it was - for something around £225,000, which was well out of our budget range in 1997 (probably just as well). It's now been smartened up and taken over by a small local chain called Blubeckers, and I popped round to see it although I didn't have time to make my fourth visit in 40 years. The memories of 1968 remain strong, however.
The Bolney Stage today
But anyway, back to the Bolney Wine Estate at the end of the 2008 harvest. The pickers were gathering the last of the Pinot Noir as our group was shown round by Duncan Monro, who freelances as a guide during the season. His knowledge is comprehensive, and he explained everything very thoroughly. The estate has 18 acres (7.3 hectares - sorry, I can only think in metric when it comes to vineyards) with a further 15 recently planted, which will make a total of 13.4 hectares when the vines come to maturity. Yield is more or less three tonnes per acre (to cut out the maths, that's about 50 hl/ha) and I was able to interview the winemaker, Samantha Linter, about the new vintage. Interestingly, as it turned out, I had been one of her lecturers when she was doing her diploma at Plumpton College. She was up to her neck in crushing and fermentation but took a few minutes out for a chat (this will be broadcast on Splash FM on Sunday 9th November) and she seemed very positive about the new vintage: although we had a relatively sunless summer, average temperatures were quite warm, and a help to slow but effective ripening, such that some varieties didn't need any chaptalisation.
Samantha Linter at work in the wineryAfter the tour we headed back to the visitor centre, which is a pleasant, airy, conservatory-type building, for the tasting. On the regular tour visitors get to taste four of the wines, but production is so small that some of the wines sell out very quickly. As with all English vineyards, there is not one jot of support from the government, and the wines pay the same taxes and duty as imported wines (this is not the case in other European countries), so price is always a critical factor, but even so there is value to be had and, on our visit, two or three wines were no longer available. The estate's policy is to sell all its wines as 'regional' even though they qualify for QWPSR status. The UK, however, has only two QWPSR zones ('England' and 'Wales'), and Bolney want to emphasise that this is Sussex wine, so they are bottled as 'Sussex Regional Wine', which legally ranks alongside the European Vin de Pays/Indicazione Geogràfica Tìpica/Vino de la Tierra etc. These are the wines we tasted:
1) Autumn Spice 2007 - 11.5% abv - £7.95 - Müller-Thurgau/Schönberger/Wurzer
Almost colourless//gentle, spicy, aromatic//very clean, crisp, delicious, bone dry but with a hint of aromatic fruit, crisp acidity on finish. Very pleasant. This is their best-selling white wine.
2) Dark Harvest 2004 - 11% abv - £7.95 - Rondo/Dornfelder - £7.95
Light purple//some dark, damsony fruit, hint of wood//some fresh tannins on mid-palate, clean, delicate, 'stone-fruit' style. Very light and a bit austere on the finish. This is their best-selling red.
3) Blackbird Merlot - 2006 - 12% abv - £9.99
Light purple//dark, liquorice, rather austere, slight 'clinical' hints//very austere tannins, but good structure and there is some complexity on the finish. The first vintage of Merlot was in 2005, and at that time it wasn't a permitted variety in English vineyards, so they had to call it Blackbird (merle, geddit?). Now, however, Merlot is a permitted variety, hence the expanded name.
4) Bolney Bubbly 2006 - 12.5% abv - £15.00 - Seyval Blanc with 12 months on the lees. Residual sugar 12 g/l.
Very pale straw, almost colourless, modest mousse//'chalky' aromas, hint of sweetness - almost honeyed//but good, bone dry, and fairly hefty on mid-palate. Nice, fresh, crisp finish.
5) Pinot Noir 2006 - 12% abv - £9.99
Pale ruby//lovely classic cool-climate Pinot Noir nose, almost musky, beeswax//rather austere on foretaste but some lipsmacking fruit on the mid-palate. Gentle, aromatic finish. This has sold out but they managed to find a bottle from the secret store.
Duncan explained that, although it's sparkling English wine which is making the headlines (and they produce four sparklers here) their main interest is in red wines, which is something of a departure in England. Samantha firmly believes that Pinot Noir is the one to watch for the future and, on this showing, it seems to have considerable potential.
This was an excellent day out, even though I couldn't stay for lunch, and I also swapped a technical spreadsheet with Samantha for a bottle of Bart's Bubbly Rosé sparkling, which is currently in the fridge awaiting further investigation.
The last Pinot Noir of summer
posted by John Radford at
05:55
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