SEDLESCOMBE ORGANIC VINEYARD
WELCOME TO THE 2005 CHRISTMAS NEWSLETTER
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Find out which of our wines have been scooping prizes this year! Read the
vineyard manager's report on his exciting first year at Sedlescombe; get
information on how our organic wines are grown and made. We also
fill you in on the lucky winner of this years
competition, along with details of our Special "buy 11 bottles -get a
bottle of Bubbly FREE" Offer available for Christmas. You may have
heard of Food Miles but at www.englishorganicwine.co.uk
you can save Wine Miles as well!
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. Members get 30% OFF wine purchases. See www.rentavine.co.uk for full
details. Thank you for your interest and custom throughout 2005.
Best Wishes for the Festive Season!
Roy & Irma Cook (Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard)
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1. My First Year by Tom Bennett, Vineyard Manager
My first year here at Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard has certainly been a busy
one. January was spent grubbing up some older unproductive vines in vineyard 2,
then it was on to the pruning, which is the largest
annual job in the vineyards. This kept us busy until April. Then it was
back round the vines tying in the canes to the trellis wires. It was about this
time I started to compare the job to painting the
However, we soon got a short break from vines as it was time to bottle the 2004
vintages.
After this was completed and the wine was safely stored in the bonded
warehouse, it was time to plant some new vines in vineyards 1 and 2 to replace
those grubbed up. We planted 17 new rows of Regent - our red wine which we make
from this variety has become so popular. In vineyard 1 we planted 12 rows of a
variety called Johanniter (a white grape) which is
new to us, and 4 rows of Triomphe dAlsace
which we use to produce our ros頧rape juice. This is an unusual
variety as it gives a red juice without having to ferment on the pulp. That is, be in contact with the skins of the grapes to absorb
their colour .
June had by now come around and it was back to the vineyards for the
never ending job of shoot positioning and canopy management that is so
essential in organic grape growing to prevent disease. This is primarily about
ensuring an adequate circulation of air around the developing bunches and
keeping an eye on the leaf to fruit ratio to prevent over cropping. This would
be a problem because if there is too much fruit it would not ripen in our
limited season at this latitude.
Weed control by strimming under the rows and mowing
between the rows also begins around this time. At this time of the year the
flowers are starting to set into the bunches they will become, and this picture
(bottom left) shows a bunch starting to form on the left while on the right
there are still flowers showing and the set is not as far advanced.
All the pictures Im using here are stills from a
short film Im in the process of producing about a
year in the vineyard, which should be available as a download from our website
in the New Year. I hope you will be interested enough to take a look at
it. Now, summer was upon us and with the sun came an increase in the labour force as WWOOFers (http://www.wwoof.org/)from all over the world
came to lend a hand for a week or longer and learn about organic grape growing
and winemaking at first hand. This help is invaluable and a big thank you to all of them for saving me from exhaustion and
brightening up the place generally! It also meant I had the time to go out to a
few farmers markets and shows and meet some of you, the customers, which I
found a very interesting and rewarding experience.
The grapes continued to grow and then ripen. The wonderful Indian
summer we had here really helped to boost the sugar levels in the crop which
means the 2005 vintage should be a very good one. Our Seyval
Blanc variety which we use in the sparkling Bodiam
Brut and also the Bodiam
Harvest produced a real bumper crop and by the end of October we had
harvested about 12.5 tons in all!
A friend calculated I had probably
lifted the whole crop about three times over, in loading the trailer, unloading
the trailer, and then putting them through the crusher. By the end of the
month my back certainly agreed with him! There was little time for rest
however, as the apples had started to arrive for pressing into apple juice. So
the whole of November has been taken up with pressing one day, bottling the
next, then pressing, then bottling, then pressing then bottling, etc. This is
now coming to an end, except for some cider and apple wine making, and then
there will be a chance for us to catch our breath, until pruning time again in
January. Then the whole cycle begins again.
Tom Bennett (Vineyard Manager)
2. First Harvest from new Solaris vines
This year we recorded the earliest harvest ever -
not for all varieties, but just for one special new variety called
Solaris. Planted in 2003 we picked the first grapes on 21st September, a
good 2 weeks before any of the established varieties, AND they had the highest
natural sugar levels ever recorded at Sedlescombe - equivalent to 10.5% vol Alcohol!
From 500 young vines we harvested 450kg of sweet succulent grapes which were
whole bunch pressed (to minimize tannins) and to ensure best possible quality
of the end product. In future years we hope to be able to make wine from
this variety without the addition of any extra sugar. This year I decided
to play safe and added just 1%vol of alcohol in the form of additional sugar.
Because this is such a brand new variety I am required to report back to the
vine breeding institute in
By 10th October harvest was in full swing and we were harvesting between 1 and
2 tonnes daily. This year we had to pick more urgently than usual as the acids in the fruit
were reducing very fast despite dry warm weather. Acids lend the wine its
fruitiness so we have to make sure the grapes are harvested
with adequate acidity. We also have to ensure clean grapes (i.e.
no mouldy botrytis). Not only does this make life
easier for the wine-maker, it 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 2005's
presented no such problems as they were completely botrytis-free.
Roy Cook (Wine maker)
3. This Years Prize Winners:-
English Wine of the Year Competition- June 2005
Highly Commended:-
Sedlescombe 2004 Dry White
Sedlescombe 2003 Cuv饠Bodiam
Brut Quality English Sparkling Wine
Sedlescombe 2003 Cuv饠Pinot
Noir Regent ROSɠBrut
Quality English Sparkling Wine.
Great Taste Awards
Silver Medal Sedlescombe Blackberry & Apple Juice
Bronze Medal Sedlescombe Apple
Juice
Sedlescombe Grape Liqueur
Sedlescombe Apple Wine
4. Christmas Wine Offer
Our Whopping 2005 Christmas Free Bubbly Wine Offer! Buy 11, get a
bottle of top Vintage 2003 Bodiam
Brut Quality Bubbly(worth 17.95) absolutely FREE & FREE delivery!! (
CLICK on our Online Store at www.englishorganicwine.co.uk
5. Mulled Wine
We have just bottled the second vintage of our 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!
6. Competition Winner
Christmas will come early this year for the
winner of our annual competition to guess the number of bottles from a single
pressing with the antique cast iron and oak press when it was last used in
1991. The winner is Karen Mackay, of St leonards-on-Sea,
Hope you have a fantastic Organic Christmas! A case of wine is on its
way!
7. Rentavine.co.uk Club
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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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