WELCOME TO THE 2004 CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER
You are receiving this newsletter as a member of our Rentavine.co.uk Club, or because you have requested to receive newsletters from us; or because you are a previous customer.
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In this newsletter you will find out which of our wines have been scooping prizes this year; You can read the vineyard owner's report on the 2004 vintage; get information on how the wines are made and their current stage of development.
We also fill you in on the winner of our annual competition and offer details of our Special "buy 11 get a 12th free" 2003 selections available for Christmas. Visit the online store on our website www.englishorganicwine.co.uk. Or ring our 24hr orderline on FREEfone 0800 980 2884. Or fax 01580 830122.
Also, don't forget to check out the gift of membership to our Rentavine.co.uk Club. See www.rentavine.co.uk for full details.
Thank you for your interest and custom throughout 2004.
Best Wishes for the Festive Season!
Roy & Irma Cook (Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard)
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1. Prize Winning 2003's
Our greatest accolade in more than 20 years of making wine at Sedlescombe came in September at the largest English Wine event of the year - The English Wine Festival. Now in its 30th year the festival attracts exhibitors and visitors from all over the country to the Bentley Wildfowl Museum in Hassocks, East Sussex. This year Sedlescombe scooped 1st Prize in the Dry White section with our 2003 Dry White and 3rd prize in the Rose section with the 2003, our first ever Rosé wine.
In June, at the English Wine of the Year Competition we won a 'Highly Commended' award with our new 2003 Regent - England's first organic oak-matured red wine! Our 2002 Dry White (now sold out) won a Bronze Medal at this prestigious event.
It just goes to prove what many of our customers have been telling us for many years that producing wines organically does not decrease quality and may even enhance it!!
2. Mulled Wine
There is also a fantastic new product out now - Our Mulled Wine! Made from our organic red grapes and using organic sugar and organic mulling spices. Try it with roast chestnuts, hot mince pies or any winter snacks! Just heat and enjoy! Do not boil - alcohol boils off at 80C so overheating will reduce alcohol!
3. Vintage 2004
Bud burst came early this year, brought on by a warm early April. The dangerous frost-risk period of late-April/early May coincided with a mild showery airflow from the West, which meant that while most people were bemoaning a lack of sunshine, we, and other wine growers and gardeners were gleefully happy! Showery conditions mean we avoid the killer frosts which descend on a clear night and which can wipe out a crop of grapes, even before the growing season has properly started.
The remainder of May and the first 3 weeks of June were warmer than average, so much so that by the time the Wimbledon tennis started the vines were 2 weeks in advance of an average year. Everything looked set for another fantastic year. I doubt that we were the only ones dreaming of a repeat of 2003! As we all know now it was not to be. Wimbledon was wet and windy for the most part, July was dull, if not gloomy. August was remarkable only for downpours and flooding! Not until September did the weather pick up and provide some late sunshine. Picking in October was completed in warm autumn sun.
Was it all too little too late? How did the vines perform in this 'awful' summer?
I am happy to report the answer: "not at all bad". How could this be?
The answer takes us right back to the glorious summer of 2003. In July and August of that year, when the buds which burst early in April this year, were formed, so too was the fruiting potential for 2004. As soon as the vines flowered in late June we could see that there were more bunches than usual. The potential for a big crop was right there in front of us! To realize this potential however, we would need a reasonable amount of warmth and sunshine as well as some rainfall at the right time to swell the fruit. By the time harvest came around it was clear that we had had enough of both, the crop was huge, the biggest ever, and the quality potential was going to be good as well; not quite as sensational as the '03's but not far short! Only the Seyval blanc variety disappointed, due to poor fruit set in the cool and damp conditions of early July. This meant that we only cropped half a tonne from this variety instead of the 3 tonnes of last year. Our new Regent vines cropped slightly up on last year producing just over 4 tonnes of ripe black grapes for our 2004 Red wine. On all the white varieties (except Seyval blanc) yields were up on 2003 with very similar quality fruit.
Due to diligent shoot positioning and leaf removal around the bunches all fruit was 100% healthy. So, even without a Vineyard Manager (Peter, the previous manager, left in September 2003 and was not replaced) we achieved our best ever yield since we started back in 1979. Credit for much of this must go to our fantastic volunteer helpers from Slovakia; Monica and Dennis who did all the pruning, and their friends Matt and Peter who looked after the vines throughout the summer and stayed on to supervise the harvesting.
4. Making the 2004's
Clean grapes (ie no mouldy botrytis) makes life easier for the wine-maker, and is essential for the production of organic wines. This is because mouldy grapes require so much more sulphur-dioxide to prevent browning (oxidation) that the limits allowed for organic wines would be exceeded. Fortunately the 2004's presented no such problems. The grapes also showed good acid and sugar levels which meant wine-making could proceed in the normal way.
For the whites this means crushing the fruit and allowing to stand overnight resulting in 'skin contact' to increase the bouquet potential. This pulp is then fed into the press and the juice squeezed out. Press fractions are kept separate enabling the early juice that comes when the press is excerting minimal pressure to be processed separately for the Dry White, and the later juice that is extracted when the press is working hard at high pressure and which contains more phenolics or tannins can be made into our sweeter style Reserve wine where the phenolics, due to the sweeter flavour are less noticeable on the palate.
Once the juice has been extracted we measure the sugar content using a hydrometer or refractometer and measure the acidity with a titration kit and indicator solution. We then add yeast and allow the juice to ferment for a few weeks. During fermentation we carry out any corrections to the acidity by adding chalk if we need to reduce acidity. We also do the chapitalization which is a fancy jargon for adding sugar. The UK comes under wine zone 1 in the EU along with the Ahr, Nahe and Moselle regions in Germany, Luxembourg and Champagne region of France. The regulations governing the use of sugar in wines are exactly the same for us as they are for those regions.
Following completion of the fermentation, the wine is pumped off the sediment of spent yeast cells and the clarification process begins.
For the Reds the fermentation is done 'on the pulp' so as to extract the maximum colour from the skins. Only after fermentation is nearing completion is the pressing done. Then the wine is chapitalized if required, and allowed to ferment to dryness. Then a special 'malo-lactic' culture is added to encourage the malo-lactic fermentation. To get this fermentation going the wine has to be warmed to 18 C . To achieve this we wrapped a 3,000 litre vat in loft insulation material and put an electric heater underneath. Within a week the wine temperature had risen from 8 C to the required 18 C. Malo-lactic fermentation changes the harsh malic acid to the softer lactic acid making the red wine more acceptable on the palate. The process took 3 weeks for our Regent 2004. This wine has now been moved out of its warm vat ready for pumping into the small oak barrels for its oak-maturation phase. Early tastings indicate great promise for the 2004 Regent which will be slightly softer than the 2003 and with slightly less deep colour too.
5. Competition Winner
A case of wine is winging its way to Louise Crowhurst for her wining guess in our competition to guess the number of bottles from one pressing using our antique oak and cast iron press. Louise guessed the number exactly and will be receiving a welcome early Christmas present from us!
6. Christmas Vintage 2003 Special Offers + New Mulled Wine!
With Christmas fast approaching we have some excellent wines available now from Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard. Why not join the growing number of people who are buying local food & wine, so as to reduce "food (and wine) miles". The lenghthy journeys some of our food travels before it reaches us, is one of the main causes of excess carbon dioxide in the atomsphere and the resulting global warming. The BBC2 TV programme "Full-on-Food"on 8th December showed that the average ingredients of an average dinner travelled 19,000 miles!!
Apart from that, remember the quality - the wines available this Christmas are the outstanding prize winners from the 2003 vintage!!
7. Christmas Wine Offer
Buy 11 get 12th bottle FREE + FREE UK mainland delivery!!!!
In particular, try the Dry White, the Regent -England's first organic oak-matureed Red, the Rosé and the Rosé Bubbly. These are all on offer from our website www.englishorganicwine.co.uk. Or ring our 24hr orderline on FREEfone 0800 980 2884
7. Rentavine.co.uk Club
If you are looking for something a little out of the ordinary to give to someone close to you who is interested in wine, then check out giving them a year's membership of our unique Rentavine.co.uk Club. Visit our website www.rentavine.co.uk for full details.
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