Here Comes Harvest soon

We can hardly believe how fast it has arrived but it is mid-September already, meaning that here in East Sussex our 2022 vintage is almost ready to take the next exciting stage in its journey… harvest.

Hello friends, and welcome back to our updates after a short summer break, we hope that you are very well. We’re here with another diary entry for you on life and times at our Eridge vineyard, so make yourself comfortable, it’s fika time.

Let us begin, as ever, with the vines: The vineyard is so incredibly healthy and vibrant at the moment – arguably looking at its very best at this time of year – with the lush green vines carrying the weight of the now colourful, swelling fruit they’ve been carefully nurturing to ripeness all season.

In the photo here you can see our Pinot Noir grapes, going through the fascinating looking process of veraison – which in the case of red varieties like this means changing colour, and beginning to sweeten. Which as you can see, they do one grape at a time!

So what can you expect from sparkling wines from 2022? Well, it has been an excellent year weather-wise, hot and dry for extended periods, and our expectation is that we will bring in a ripe crop a little earlier than in previous years – by ten days perhaps, and that the fruit quality will be very high. Our best yet? We will see.

Here you will see clear evidence that Douglas is ready for harvest time, with an on-brand colour-matched shirt and bottle, the latter of which he keeps in his tractor at all times in case of emergencies. We’re joking of course… aren’t we?

Our thanks to Master of Wine Anne Krebiehl for reviewing our debut Blanc de Noirs in international wine and lifestyle publication Falstaff Magazine:

“A touch of peppery… hedgerow fruit appears first, then lemony brightness and just a hint of yeast appears. The palate is super-brisk and vividly bright, with a slender body that reverberates with freshness. The mousse is fine but bottle age will make a huge difference to this wine, it has the freshness to last and the concentration to evolve.”

Lovely words, and we totally agree that that this wine will only get better with age.
And finally we have another exciting name on the London food scene where you can enjoy our sparkling wines; we are now at chef Adam Handling’s Michelin-starred restaurant Frog by AH. ‘British food, inspired by London’ in the heart of Covent Garden. It’s yet another one for your list!

That’s all for us for this time, we will see you again very soon.

Skål!

Susanna & Douglas