Dear Rentavine.co.uk member,

Welcome to the June Newsletter for Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard's Rentavine.co.uk members

In this issue we look at the recent boost in prestige and publicity for English Wines, and take the lid off the mysteries surrounding organic certification.  AND we find some 2003 wines which we thought were sold out!

Red Tape Adinfinitum!
by Roy Cook (owner & wine maker)

English Wine Week at the end of May saw all local vineyards offer special discounts to encourage more visitors and increase sales.
More Publicity is the goal, and our market agent Richard Widenka (who runs our Farmer's Market stall in Lewes, Battle and Tunbridge Wells) has been busy in his other role as our Public Relations person sending out press releases.  As a result of his efforts Battle Express newspaper had an article on Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard in this weeks edition and Radio Kent ran a telephone interview with myself.

We also helped to contribute to all the excitement by offering Free Entry and 10% off English Wines right through English Wine Week (26th May - 2nd June).
On the subject of Publicity, did you see the press reports about the staggering 21 awards gained by English Wines in the “International Wine & Spirit Competition”? This was considerably more than home produced wines had ever scored before, even more than Chile (13) whose wine industry and reputation as a wine producing country surely far exceeds our own. French wines still won the most however, with 635 awards, an indication of the sheer number, variety and quality of the wines produced there.

Apologies for the delay in getting this newsletter out - due to pressure of work, partly a result of our vineyard manager, James, leaving in early April.
This has meant that I have had to swap my cosy office chair for the somewhat less comfortable one on the tractor and do mowing, spraying and rotovating tasks.  Although we have advertised the job and done some interviews, it is becoming clear that it is not easy to find younger people with the practical inclination or skills necessary to be successful in a farming environment.  Anyway, we are still looking, so watch this space!

Earlier this month we were subject to our annual inspection by what my wife Irma, euphemistically calls the “ darling” Soil Association .
The complexities and red tape appear to get worse year by year. For the lay person organic production just means alternatives to chemical fertilizers and sprays, but in reality that is not even half of it. Nowadays we have to provide certificates from suppliers that every ingredient such as ascorbic acid (vitamin C), yeasts, and enzymes have not had any contact with genetically modified organisms.   Some suppliers are a bit laggardly with this, especially if they have to go back to a manufacturer in some distant land e.g. France!

Also on the outlying orchards and vineyards we have to produce sheep grazing records to show that the non-organic sheep which graze there have not done so for longer than 120 days in a 12 month period. Also, a thorough audit of inputs is carried out at the inspection and copies of organic certificates from all our suppliers have to be on file. The whole procedure took 1 ½ days of the inspector's (and my) precious time! Surely it is the conventional growers, the polluters who should have more bureaucracy thrust upon them, not us good guys.  It certainly makes a mockery of the numerous examples you can find on the Internet of wine marketing companies claiming that this, that or the other wine  is 'organic' even though the producer is not officially certified as organic. Just try searching “organic wine” on any of the big company wine sellers 'find' windows on the Internet and you’ll find plenty these dodgy claims.   Please make sure you report them to Trading Standards as they are the body who enforce organic standards. It is, in fact, illegal to claim a wine is 'organic' unless it has been properly certified by an independent verification organization such as the Soil Association.

Wine Making

Following completion of the bottling of the white wines in March, samples were submitted to the United Kingdom Vineyards Association Quality Wine Scheme where they are assessed for smell and taste, as well as a detailed  chemicals analysis. This year, all but one (the Bacchus from our new Spilstead Vineyard) passed the organoleptic (smell, taste) test, but three failed the analytical test, because they had been ever so slightly “over-enriched” . Which is jargon for having had slightly too much sugar added at the fermentation stage. Even though the amount by which the added sugar exceeded the permitted limit was equivalent to less than 0.5 % alcohol, it meant that they failed to gain the Quality Wine appellation and will have to be labeled as UK Table Wine.
Our new Solaris wine too is labelled UK Table Wine but not because it had too much sugar added.  In fact the grapes for this wine were so sweet we got 12% vol. without adding any extra sugar at all. No, the reason this wine is labelled U.K. Table Wine is because the variety ‘Solaris’ is not in the UK authorized list for approved wines. Hence, wine from this variety is not allowed for Quality Wine appellation.

The only wines of our ‘06’s which would have gained the Quality Wines status was the Rose and the Regent Red.
With the Rose we had less than 1,000 bottles making it not worth the costs involved.  With the Regent Red I added 1% red grape juice to sweeten  the wine prior to bottling and this was from Triomphe d’Alsace grape variety, which again is a non-authorized variety for Quality Wine.  The Regent will therefore be Sussex Regional Wine.  'Regional Wine' is basically a Table Wine which CAN have vintage (year) and grape variety on the label.  Table Wines which are not Regional Wines cannot.

Labels are being printed in early June and release date is set for 1st July. I urge you to try them. There is propably a wider range of wines styles than ever before from Sedlescombe Organic Vineyard , now that we have added the “Oaked White” from the Solaris grape to our range.

This is all for now, just need to mention, that we have had the mildest spring since 1945, the Vineyard looks fantastic, come and see us on a sunny Summers Day and imagine being in the South of France (only better, because you did not have to travel so far!)

(Saturday 26th May 2007)

Kind Regards from the Proprietors & Wine Maker

Irma and Roy Cook

P.S.   I went into our wine bottle store the other day and got quite a surprise - there beneath a bulk bin of Black Cherry wine was a bin of our award winning Dry White from 2003, and a bin of Bodiam Harvest 2003.  The summer of 2003, if you remember, was one of the hottest summers on record, and our Dry won 1st prize for the best Dry White at the English Wine Festival the following year.  These wines are now on our website and in our treasure chest in our shop.  There are just 400 bottles of each, so if you want something rather special do not delay! They are sure to move fast - even priced at £12.95.  Rentavine.co.uk members for WHITE wine will get 30% off this price.  All other members 10% off. Visit www.englishorganicwine.co.uk for more details.