2011

Extraordinarily hot April so vines off to a very early start. Lower vineyard hit by a late frost. Cool cloudy summer slowed ripening until rescued by the hottest October in living memory. Fruit superbly ripe with perfect acidity Clean with Intense flavour.

2010

2009

A much more difficult year. We escaped the worst of the frost in May but with rain and overcast skies during late summer the grapes struggled to build sugar. Acidity a little higher than 2009 but encouragingly not as high as we might have anticipated. Primary fermentation produced clean vibrant wines which should make another excellent base for secondary fermentation in bottle.

A long warm dry summer produced fruit of exceptional quality. Sugar and acidity levels were ideally suited to Sparkling Wine production and harvest was brought forward to take advantage of early ripening.

We harvested just under 3 tonnes of fruit in blazing sunshine which produced 1350 L of wine. No question of putting wine of this quality through Malolactic Fermentation; wine already showed perfectly balanced fruit/acidity.

Secondary fermentation successful. Early tasting in December 2010 shows wine to be on track with exceptional acidity/fruit balance and beginning to develop autolytic characteristics with hint of 'brioche' aroma.

Tasting at the end of 2010 showed the wine to be further ahead than expected at this stage and a number of merchants recommended an earlier release. Tom Stevenson, author of the Sothebys and Christies Wine Encyclopedias said of the early samples: "This is going to be an excellent wine - I love the fruit and the mousse is exceptional".

Release due: Summer 2011.