The Glugger - Flipbook - Page 6
“IT IS IMPORTANT TO HAVE
A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE CAN
VISIT YOU SO THEY CAN LEARN
ABOUT WINEMAKING AND
VITICULTURE HERE IN THE UK”
Have the grapes found a new soil or are
they still harvested from the same location?
Our Sandridge Barton vineyard at 26acres has been providing
the majority of our fruit since 2010 (the Sharpham vineyard
was only 8 acres). The Sharpham vineyard was closed in
July 2022 so now we only use fruit from our larger vineyard,
which is also on the banks of the river Dart with similar sandy
loam soil and volcanic tuff bedrock. We have also planted
two further vineyards totalling a further 16 acres bringing our
total acreage to 40+ acres. Our new ‘Stonyfield’ site is in fact
planted on a limestone ridge which started life as a tropical
seabed on the equator 400 million years ago!
Now…. what’s happening in the bottle, what’s
new, how’s the harvest been and ultimately
what should Tolchards customers look to try?
We’ve got some really exciting wines in bottle right now!
It is hard to look past the Dart Valley Reserve from last years
scorching 2022 harvest, which is super ripe with stone fruit
and citrus characters. This wine is the most popular of our
range and also the best priced! We also have a stunning dry
Pinot Rosé 2022 made with Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier
that has just been The Times ‘Wine of the Month’! Then for
something a little bit different, we have an orange wine called
‘Little Bee’ which is Pinot Gris from 2021. This is incredibly
food-friendly and is full of flavour, perfect for those wanting to
explore something out of the box and a little unusual!
Given the evolving climate change within the UK
and what we have seen around the Kent region
(with certain Champagne houses taking note)
what do you expect for the South West region in
the next few years?
As with the south-east of England, here in the south-west,
things are certainly heating up too. Our harvests consistently
seem to begin mid-September these days as opposed to late
September - early October in the past. It seems that each
year over the past five years our fruit is getting progressively
riper with higher sugars and softer acids. In the past, there
were years when we couldn’t make a red wine every year,
but now we can, even with some of our Burgundian clones
of Pinot Noir, and this wine won the Best UK Red Wine and
the Best UK Still Wine at the 2023 Wine GB awards! We have
a longer and milder growing season helping us to push the
hang-time on the grapes that little bit further making it more
ideal for still wine production. So, whereas the SE now has
many comparisons to Champagne, you could almost liken our
climate to some of the northern still wine regions of France,
such as the western Loire.
With such an increase in bottle production what has
been the knock-on e昀昀ect for you and the team?
Other than more labelling! We’re noticing more trade enquiries
coming from venues across the UK. Now we have more wine
to go around, we want to cast the net a little further, so we
attended London Wine Fair 2023 to exhibit our wines for the
time which was great. We also have the capacity at our new
visitor centre to host more tours and tastings so we can also
sell more wine direct. We had gone through a period where
we couldn’t sell all the wines, we wanted to through trade as
they sold out so quickly but now with more wine, we can keep
everyone happy.
