Time for Trellising

Today marks the start of our last big job of the season, installing the trellising system for the vineyard. This is the framework needed so we can train the vine into the right shape, helping to get the best out of each vine by maximizing sun exposure whilst also aiding mechanization. It’s going to take about 3 weeks to complete and for once, much to my satisfaction, we have other people to do this!

We have chosen to use metal post, which although are slightly more expensive, do last a good 25 years, which is re-assuring. And because of our hard, flinty ground, they're much easier to put in than wood.

As for the vines, well they have had a tough few months of it with the serious lack of rain, and pretty much stopped growing for a while. Thankfully the last couple of weeks we have seen some moisture and the tips have started growing again.

So far it is shaping up to be a good UK vintage for established vineyards, although not so great for the new plantings, but they should have it easier next year. It’s also been pretty hot out in Bordeaux as well, with people already bigging up the vintage. But there is still a long way to go, and as we have seen many times before, always comes down to the autumn!

We also enjoyed an English sparkling wine tasting on Sunday, after helping my mum and Cherry label their very first vintage of Wyfold - the sparkling produced from their own 1 hectare plot - made at Ridgeview in West Sussex.

We tasted all the top names from the industry, Nyetimber, Ridgeview, Chapel Down etc. This was the first chance to taste all these wines together, along with Wyfold and Theale vineyard. I was amazed by the different styles of each wine, and it was quite clear that they were not Champagne, but I don’t mean that in a bad way. Such diversity was great to see, and made me wonder how ours would eventually turn out.

I was once told that sparkling is the ultimate expression of Terroir, mainly because they are all made in exactly the same way, so any differences are down to the vineyard site. In Champagne this is hidden as most are blends from many sites and often years, but this is not the case for many UK wines, which maybe a good thing and a point of difference.

Visit laithwaites.co.uk

A holiday and rain at last

After a pretty solid 3 months work to get our vineyard up to scratch, Kaye, Alfie and I have managed to get away for a week to relax, catch up on sleep and literally do nothing! Our destination is the truly wonderful Coniston in the Lake District, a place where no matter what the weather, we can truly unwind.

Of course it was also the place where we got married exactly 2 years ago. So we have spent some time reminiscing and realising we had done quite a bit in the two years since then! A year in the Bordeaux vineyards and then coming back and setting up in the UK. Sometimes things move so fast you never have the time to sit back and take it all in!

While the sun keeps shining down south, it is cool and rainy up here. Normally that would annoy me, but it’s actually a nice respite from the heat. It seems like it’s pretty hot out in Bordeaux as well at the moment, so everywhere except here. If only vines liked cold, wet weather this place would be perfect. So it made me laugh when I heard they might have to have a hosepipe ban around here next week!

Anyway back to the South on Sunday, and then straight into the vineyard to tie the now very long vines onto the stakes.

Visit laithwaites.co.uk

Boys and Their Toys

I have just spent a solid 5 days on the tractor testing out the new vineyard equipment. I spent many hours mulling over what machines to buy to do the best job on our vineyard. I had already decided that I was going to inter-vine cultivate instead of using weed killer. This can be very dangerous with young vines as the wrong set-up can murder a lot of vines. This is the reason why I used thick wooden stakes instead of metal or bamboo, as these others would simply fall over and kill the vine.

My inter-vine cultivator of choice is the German brand Clemens, which I tested in Bordeaux last year and loved. I said I’d accept being spanked by their football team just as long as their machine worked, which they duly did……… but thankfully the cultivator worked a treat.

With all this sunshine the weeds really had taken control and the vines needed some breathing space. I have decided to leave a 1m strip of green cover between the rows to prevent erosion and help soil structure. So after using the cultivator and the mower, the vineyard is looking pretty smart these days! This should help them continue to grow up the post and make the most of what little water there seems to be at the moment. Overall I couldn’t be happier with the way things have gone so far (touching lots of wood!)

Visit laithwaites.co.uk

Stakes done!

It’s been about a month since my last entry, mainly because it has taken me exactly a month to knock in 20,000 wooden stakes. I knew it was going to be a tough first month but that was a marathon! Although I was lucky enough to be supported by family and friends who took time out during the week and over the weekends to come and help me out, always rewarded with a bbq at the end and some drinks!

Within this month the vines have taken off exceptionally well. Having hot spells interrupted with some rainfall really has given them the best start in the first month of their lives. We have now gone back to the beginning and are taking off all the shoots not needed, leaving a healthy, well positioned one that we will grow up the stake and eventually become the mature trunk.

We have the tractor arriving today, and the rest of the machinery in the next week or so that we will need to control the weeds which are starting to get a grip. Everything is still happening pretty fast and we have even received all the trellising material that will be erected in July to support the growing vines. Our aim is to do everything we possibly can to make sure we get a decent crop in 2012.

The field is really starting to look like a vineyard now and everyone who walks by is very interested in what we’re doing and wishes us the best. We have a long way to go but I am growing in confidence all the time that we can really make something special with this site.

Visit laithwaites.co.uk

Field into Vineyard

It’s a chilly Sunday afternoon and we’ve just finished a very exciting week in our lives. The planting was delayed until Wednesday because of the rain last weekend, but our German friend Volka and his team turned up at 7am with their machine. A large military like Mercedes truck with the planting machine attached to the back.

He had a polish couple who’s job it was to sit on the machine and feed the vines into the claws, which grab the vines and then insert them into the ground. Inside his truck he has a GPS machine that latches on to Russian satellites accurately spacing out the rows to a standard error of 7mm. It all sounded pretty high tech, which sometimes worries me as the more complicated things are the more often they seem to go wrong.

We started with the Chardonnay which we had decided to put in the lower half of the field as there is more shelter from the wind and this variety is going to be the hardest to ripen so it needs any help we can give it. Volka then lines up his truck and then gently lowers his machine into the soil, where a blade digs in 40cm creating a space to insert the vines. At the bottom he stops, reverses back up the hill and them lines up the next row, pretty simple really. The vines go in at the perfect depth and straighter than if you did it by hand, truly wonderful. Sometimes when you see a machine that works so well you wonder how they must have coped back in the day when these machines didn’t exist!



By lunch we had planted 8000 Chardonnay vines, and much to our surprise there was quite a lot of space left! Kaye prepared a picnic and we sat down, all very relaxed and wondering when something was going to go wrong. Volka said one of his wheels had collapsed on the M20 coming from Dover, and held up the traffic for hours costing him a lot of money to fix.

We got cracking into the Pinot Noir after lunch which is going in the top half. Walking down the hill there is a noticeable change in the soil profile, with more flint and redder soil at the top moving to whiter chalkier soil in the middle with less flint and then finally arriving at the bottom where there is much more clay. I think this is going to give quite a variation in ripening and flavour profile which will add a nice complexity to the finished product ... I hope!

I had a arranged for a few press photographers to turn up and take photos of the machine at work and to hopefully try and spread the word about what we are trying to do. A lot of people already know it is going to be a vineyard as there is a footpath that runs along the field and people always ask what we are up to. But they then scratch their head when I tell them the we won’t be able to drink the finished product for another 6 years!

By 7pm we had planted 15000 vines with just the Pinot Meunier to finish on Thursday. A fine days work with not one problem. The next day they finished the job by 10am and were then off to the next job.

We now looked over our newly created vineyard and that’s when I knew the hard work was still to come. First up there is the small matter of hammering in 20,000 wooden stakes, a job that will take about a month!

Both myself and Kaye are very excited about what we have started, but are fully aware of how much time and effort it will take to turn these little lifeless twigs into world class sparkling wine.

Henry

P.S. An hour after Volka had left he had a tyre blow out on his way to Guildford!!?!?

Visit laithwaites.co.uk

Ripping it Up!

This week was all about men and big machinery! It was ploughing week and conditions could not have been more perfect. The wonderful two-week spell of weather had made the soil bone dry, perfect for the first pass with the sub-soiler.

This contraption consists of 3 long legs with a flat angled arrow head at the bottom which goes about 60cm deep, straight into the chalk bedrock and then lifts the soil up, de-compacting and aerating. This will help the young vine roots spread quickly into the soil and establish better. This had obviously never been done before and consequently it took a 250 horse power tractor 2 days to get it done, using around 50 litres of diesel an hour!

We then had two passes of a standard plough, which broke up the turf and leveled it out to give a nice 10cm seedbed ready for planting on Tuesday. The weather doesn’t look great for the weekend and so there is a chance it might get pushed back. But fear not we will be taking a stupid number of photos and video to make sure we capture this moment!

Henry


P.S. Alfie and friends are really loving the field as I’m sure it’s starting to remind him of his life back in Castillon!

Visit laithwaites.co.uk

Planting Day Approaching

Well I know the weather is partly responsible for causing absolute havoc with the planes, but I have to say it is doing wonders for our field. It is completely bone dry and perfect for ‘ripping up’ with the deep plough next week. We have finished the fencing which looks great and haven’t seen a cheeky rabbit or deer anywhere.

This week I took delivery of 26 pallets of 20,000 little wooden stakes which will support the vines in there infancy. The reason I choose wood when most go for metal rods is because I am using a very good inter-vine cultivator for weed control, instead of having to resort to weed killer. For this reason I need a solid stake to prevent the machine from damaging the young vines. Only problem is that I have to manually bang in 20,000 wooden stakes!

We have also been busy tree planting to help control the wind which seems to come form all directions. It is my one concern with this site so everything must be done to help, even though a bit of wind is good for disease control. Fertilizer has been added for potassium and magnesium and we are now looking to plant first week in May.

Whilst all this was going on I also had to make a very important trip over to Bordeaux to bottle our 2008 wines. Both La Clariere and Verniotte were bottled in beautiful sunshine, although I think bottling stresses me out more than vintage. It is a very important stage and if not done properly can seriously damage the longevity of the wine.

Apart from the labels arriving at the same time as the bottling machine everything went smoothly and I can say that 2008, as we always knew, is a great vintage. I know 2009 has now overshadowed everything, but the 2008’s have such a great expression of fruit for such a difficult year and it’s balance will keep it going for many a year to come.

Chateau La Clariere will be going out to the Confreres soon but my Chateau Verniotte and Aux Trois Freres will stay in bottle for a while longer, to be released before Xmas.

Visit laithwaites.co.uk