The Glugger - Flipbook - Page 7
How do you look after the vines
during the year, what is most
important for them and how do
you judge when your vineyards
are ready to harvest?
We have a small but dedicated
vineyard team who tend the wines
year-round, come rain or shine! Many
of the practices are very hands-on,
including harvest where all the fruit is
hand-picked. Canopy management is
very important here in South Devon as
humidity can be high, so ensuring there
is good airflow helps keep the rots away
and the fruit clean. We take sugar and
acidity readings from around the end of
August and when things balance out, we
make the call. We also taste the fruit as
we’re looking for flavour ripeness too,
and no readings can state this!
Are there any ‘tell tell’ signs that
the forth coming harvest will be
a good year?
Yes, there are, but things can always
change at the drop of a hat. The number
of buds is usually determined by the
harvest before, so because 2022 was
such a great harvest, it’s given us a
very high bud count for 2023. Then
you need successful flowering, dry
with a gentle breeze so you get good
pollination, which we had this year.
Now we need a mixture of sunshine and
some rain for good growth, but once the
bunches really start to form, we need
dry sunny conditions through August
and September, sometimes into October
too! So far, we have a very big crop on
our hands, but let’s see what August and
September have in stall for us!
Have you seen the UK attitude
to home grown wine change
over the past few years?
Definitely. I think it helps that UK
wines are now consistently winning top
international awards. But also, I think
it is important to have a place where
people can visit you so they can learn
about winemaking and viticulture here
in the UK, as it very different to the
rest of the world and it helps people
to understand the difficulties and of
course the style of wines we produce.
But on the whole, more people are
interested, sales are up and more
people seem to want to explore what
UK producers have to offer.
What do you suggest visitors
ask for when they visit a new
vineyard?
Try as many wines as possible! We
have a range of about 15 wines at the
moment and it is highly likely we‘ll have
at least one style for everyone’s taste!
We also encourage visitors to talk to our
staff as they’re all very knowledgeable
and can help people to learn about how
we work here at Sandridge Barton, you
could even book onto one of our Guided
Tasting if you want more information!
We also have an amazing restaurant
called Circa, and no visit to a winery
with a wine tasting is complete without a
good lunch!
What does the next 12 months
hold for the vineyard and what
do you hope to achieve?
We’re about to release a new range of
wines! Our Sandridge Barton range will
consist of 3-4 wines that we have kept
back, matured for longer, selected from
our best parcels of fruit and are wines
that we believe are the most complex
and expressive we have ever made.
We’ve already been awarded the Best
UK Still, Best UK Red and Best Regional
Wine for the Pinot Noir 2020, and our
Blanc de Noirs 2020 won only one of
7 international wines to win a Master
Medal at the Global Sparkling
Wines Masters!
We also have a new vineyard called
‘Stonyfield’, which will give us its first
crop in 2024. We planted this vineyard in
2021 on a raised bed of limestone which
is very unique for the UK. We’re hoping
the eight different clones of Pinot Noir
and four different clones of Chardonnay
will take well to this site and give us
more exceptional fruit to work with!
