Dear Rentavine.co.uk member,

Welcome to the Spring Newsletter for Rentavine.co.uk members

A Word from the Vineyard. by James Davis (vineyard manager)

  People have said to me on more than one occasion, "well you can't be very busy in the vineyard during the winter months. What can there possibly be to do?" The short answer is plenty. Plenty to do before the sap rises and the buds break returning the vineyard to its glorious green.

 In the winter months, during which the vines remain dormant, the pruning process begins. Pruning is one of the most important aspects to viticulture. The pruning decisions made will affect the rest of the growing season for both the vine and the grower. In cool climates like the U.K., pruning is particularly important with regards to controlling the vigour of the vines, by reducing the number of buds capable of producing new growth.

 As a commercial winery, the quality of the fruit will determine the quality of the wine, as the well-worn saying goes, 'good wine is made in the vineyard, not in the winery'. With this in mind, the pruner will remove most of the old and new wood, leaving fruiting buds that, when the grapes emerge, will ripen sufficiently on the vine. The fewer bunches of grapes a vine has, the riper they should be.

 When you come down to visit Sedlescombe and walk through the vineyards, if you look closely you will notice that all the vines are trained on wires. The training systems vary according to grape variety. Put simply, some vines we train to grow upwards, while others downwards.
 Pruning helps us establish and maintain the shape of the vine which makes all other vineyard operations throughout the growing season easier- in theory!

 We are also busy in the winery. The red wine that is now maturing in the oak barrels needs to be topped up regularly. Wine is lost through evaporation and it is necessary to keep the barrels full, thus preventing oxygen entering and transforming the wine into vinegar.

 After pumping the wine into barrel, we were left with wonderfully nutritious yeast which we tossed between the vines in a ritual fashion.
 2006 was an extraordinary year at Sedlescombe. This year e are well ahead of schedule, which is satisfying to know, especially when working with nature, which will not wait for you, once the buds burst and the shoots begin to grow.

 The big spring clean is due to commence soon, signalling that 2007 in the tasting room and shop is open to you all.

 Cheers!

Wine maker's Report by Roy Cook

Excitement mounts at Sedlescombe as bottling approaches.  All last year’s efforts in the vineyard get squeezed into bottles in the next couple of weeks.  Bottling as early as possible is essential in order to capture the fantastic freshness of our cool climate Whites and Rosé wines. Then the 2006 vintage will be released by about end- May in time for English Wine Week "http://www.englishwineweek.co.uk/   May 26th - June 3rd.

For information about how the wines reached this stage, read on!

First we have to go back to last Autumn and the fermentation process that changed the grape sugars into alcohol.  In order to monitor the progress of this we take regular measurements of the specific gravity.  We can then see when the process has finished or deal with any ‘stuck’ fermentations.

Once fermentation is finished the wines are pumped off the spent yeast sediment.  The sediment is a highly nutritious plant food and so we spread it back onto the vineyard, especially on areas where the vines are lacking in vigour.  The racked wines get their first dose of sulphur dioxide (SO2) now, a preservative (or anti-oxidant) which keeps the fresh fruity flavours locked in and stops the wine aging quickly and going brown and sherry-like.  The fermentation itself produces small amounts of SO2 but not enough to protect the wine for very long.  Very occasionally one hears about wines made and bottled without any added SO2, but usually such wines have a short life and are to a greater or lesser extent oxidized. We add the SO2 as a 5% solution in water, adding about 150ml of solution per 100 liters of wine.  Organic standards specify a maximum level of SO2 which is less than half that permitted for conventional wines.

For the reds SO2 is not added at this stage.  This is because they first have to go through what is called the ‘malo-lactic’fermentation, which turns the harsh malic acid into the softer lactic acid.  Like the alcoholic fermentation the wines give off carbon dioxide gas during this stage too.  To get this process started we have to heat the wine up to 20C by placing heaters underneath the vats and to add a culture of the bacteria to kick-start the reaction. Once complete - it usually takes about 3 weeks.  We then pump the reds into the small barrique oak barrels where they mature for 4 months acquiring the highly sought after toasted oak bouquet, complex flavours and more body.  Only once this stage is complete, in May, do the reds get their first dose of SO2.

Back to the whites.  Following the transfer into fresh clean vats, the ‘first racking’, we leave the wines for about a month during which time the wines (which were cloudy) become clear, though not yet ‘bright’ as they will appear after bottling.  But they are ready for filtration, which I carried out in February, by filtering them through two separate filters, one coarse the other fine, connected to each other by a pipe through which the wine is pumped.

In early January, a few days after the first racking, samples of each of the new wines is sent to a chemical laboratory for analysis to check such things as alcohol content, total acidity, residual sugar content, protein stability, SO2 content, iron and copper content, etc. etc.  These reports together with the tasting of each of the different wines help to determine blending decisions.  Our very popular Dry White for example is always made predominantly from the Bacchus (bouquet) and Reichensteiner grape varieties.  The ’06 Dry White will also contain Muller-Thurgau, Regner, Kerner (fruity acidity) and Siegerrebe (aroma) varieties.

All that remains before bottling the whites is for the corks to arrive from Portugal and the bottles from France.  Then, just before bottling, I will add a very small amount of grape juice (unfermented) held back from when the grapes were pressed in October, and pasteurized to stop it turning into wine.  This is added to sweeten the wines.  Wine regulations prevent the adding of sugar at this stage, though sugar is added at the fermentation stage, if necessary.  In the case of the Dry White only 3-4 grams per liter is added, the Bodiam Harvest gets 12-15 grams and the Reserve around 30 grams per liter of sugar added in the form of this grape juice.  This also dilutes the alcohol slightly, which is why, sweeter wines made this way, have lower alcohol content.

Due to the exceptionally large quantity of wine from last year’s grapes we have had to invest in a lot of new bulk bins to put the bottles into for storage until they are required for labeling, which we do not do until the wine is required for sales.

Early indications are that we will be able to bottle the Dry White earlier than usual and to capture some of the dissolved carbon dioxide in the wine to give the wine a slight ‘spritz’ or ‘petulance’ - a slight sparkle which has the effect of adding an additional dimension to the palate and enhances the perception of freshness.

This year’s 2006 red now in its un-oaked state shows lots of promise with a deeper colour than the last 2 vintages, a robust body and reasonably good alcohol at 11%, which will probably make it equally popular with our female customers as the red blooded males!  Apparently women’s bodies are not able to take the same quantities of alcohol as men’s.

So we are all ready - bring on the bottles and the corks and 3 of us will bottle all 30,000 bottles in less than 2 weeks.  Look out for them in early summer, try them, and let me know what you think!