Three Choirs Vineyard, Newent - 17th September, 2015

So it was that on the 17th September the sun was shining and we had nothing else much to do than to search for wine! We had decided that the nearest to us really is Three Choirs near Newent so off we set... We had done our homework a little and knew that they do produce a red - I am a little of the opinion that it may be worth sampling the whites too - why not, there will definitely be more of them....

We have passed this vineyard so often so it was great to have the time to stop and get acquainted. It does not disappoint, the situation is lovely and it has a first class restaurant where we enjoyed a light lunch before the tour at 2.30. They also offer accommodation so there is everything you need and beautifully presented. The vines cover 75 acres in total.

This vineyard is the 2nd oldest in the country - the oldest being Denbie's in Surrey near Box Hill. We did visit there a long time ago so it is high on the list for sure.

The tour was made very interesting and entailed 4 wine samplings. We started as we heard about the history of the estate with the sparkling Classic Cuvée - not to be called champagne although that is what it is, as the French are protective of their name, whereas in fact English sparkling wines were recently voted better than champagne. This was a pleasant, quite dry but fresh wine although we are not overly fond of sparkling wines.

The vineyard here was started in 1971 when it was rented from a local landowner, Mr Oldacre. It has steadily grown in size to the 75 acres it is today and is owned by 8 shareholders who still rent the land. The business has also grown by the owners acquiring a new vineyard in Hampshire, in Wickham - a bit confusing as there is another vineyard nearby too I think - to be explored....

The yield here at Newent has also steadily climbed giving now over 350,00 bottle per year! The most used white grape is the Seyval Blanc and also Reichensteiner and Siegerrebe. Vines are chosen which are able to cope with our climate....here are some Reichensteiner vines.

Vines are cropped for a maximum of 30 years before being replaced. This area is particularly suitable for vines as it has free draining soil and is in a valley protected from the worst weather. Although the floods in 2007 had a severe effect on the harvest, a lot of the vines succumbing to mildew that year. Our second tasting was the single grape white variety, Siegerrebe and it was indeed very tasty. Quite dry but not too much.

In addition to bottling their own wines, three Choirs also bottles for other vineyards in the area which increases their bottling to over 500,000 per year. Sparkling accounts for 30% and red wine only 10%. To produce the red they use American or French oak barrels as English oak is too tightly packed a wood to allow tannins to escape satisfactorily. The barrels are used for only 3 years and then passed on to be used for French vintage wines which require the extra tannin flavours.

As we were shown the bottling plant and the sparkling wine procedure, we sampled a white blended wine, Coleridge Hill. This was to us quite bland though I heard some others in the group saying they liked it.

They have also produced wines here that have been used to produce brandy - the wine being distilled first in Jersey and then in Hereford (will they use Ludlow soon?). The brandy was quite expensive so that will go on my Christmas list!

At the end of the tour, we sampled the Red!! It is Ravens Hill which is a blend of 3 grapes, Rondo, Regent and Triomphe and it is a fruity wine so very palatable. The wines will not improve with age as the continental wines can do if of good enough quality - so they just have to be enjoyed!

We also heard about their own microbrewery here - Whittingtons beers (Dick Whittington lived in a nearby village so all their brews are named after cats!) As they have got busier with their wine, the brewing has had to be moved off site.

We made our purchases in the very nice shop - red of course, a couple of the Siegerrebe and also a bottle of the rosé to try. The rosé is a blend of Seyval Blanc, Triomphe and Regent.

It was a super drive home in our trusty Moggy. A wonderful start to what promises to be much fun and with much to learn!

Where next??

Introduction....

Well having finished long distance paths - at least for the time being, we needed a new project! And having recently acquired our little red Morgan 4/4, it seemed that she should be involved too. So it was that Chris decided that Sassy - our car - would enable us to travel the countryside in search of good British red wine! We think we should be patriotic again and buy British.

With such a brilliant plan afoot - we had started to collect our list of vineyards - and there are very many - and increasing all the time it seems, a little like all the microbreweries that have been on the increase.

We had recently sampled red German wine brought to us by our friends and that is quite a fruity wine - none of the tannins we associate - and love - like the Bordeaux wines. We have been until now very francophile in our taste for wines.. And then more recently we visited the Ludlow Food Fair weekend which was fantastic. So many local producers in the same place offering everything from fruit and veg to chocolates - the cheeses were terrific, the hams and smoked sausages amazing, the peanut butter in so many flavours, the honey and jams prolific! It made us feel very proud! And determined to find what we are looking for....

There were indeed plenty of cider producers represented and indeed one of them is distilling now in Ludlow so brandy and whisky are in the making....again on the increase

There were also one of two vineyards at the Food Fair, one of which was Wroxeter Roman vineyard. Very northerly we thought to be able to produce red grapes for red wine...but not so! They even had 2 different types which we had to sample...Roman Red which Chris preferred but I found it a bit dry so we bought the Shropshire Red, very light and fruity..

So - let the little red English car visiting vineyards in search of the best British Red (a little subjective I agree...) begin!