With autumn rich in colour now, our days of touring vineyards are numbered as a lot of them close for the grape picking and subsequent winter months. And we had spotted that the very last day for a tour at very probably our nearest vineyard was TODAY! Even better, the weather was perfect for a spin in Sassy. Sadly I was unable to drive her today due to falling down on Friday so causing a painful arm. Nonetheless it was a lovely drive and the autumn colours are so much better when you feel part of the landscape ..
Kerry Vale is situated about 30 miles from us and is literally alongside Offa's Dyke, just down the road from Brompton Crossroads for those of you who have read my
Offa's Dyke blog! And as such is only just in England ... and steeped in much history. A perfect day out for us - wine and history!
The vineyard is very new, started in 2010 again as a family run business, Geoff and June Ferguson and family who having bought an old farm here and knocked it down, decided over a glass of wine one evening that it was worth finding out if the ground was good for vines - and it was! Think they have been on a steep learning and hard working curve ever since - but boy have they learned!
Both Chris and Sassy were quite at home amidst the vines...
They planted 6,000 vines in 2010 - 33% of them were Rondo, the red grape and the 2 white are Phoenix and Solaris. Phoenix grapes are used for their sparkling wine. All of their wines are produced and bottled at the winery at
Halfpenny Green Vineyard near Wolverhampton, a 30 year old vineyard which will be a winter visit. It only offers a few public tours but its shop is open all year with many tempting local delicacies as well as its wines!
The Rondo harvest is already over here - only a few withering grapes remain which had been left as of not good enough quality.
The whites however are waiting their harvest.... (and are actually much more sweet tasting than I expected - sshhh!). Geoff thought they may well be picked this next weekend.
There are lots of volunteers who come along and help at harvest time so maybe next year with a stronger picking arm, I may be tempted!
The vineyard is in a beautiful place. Not only alongside the Dyke but with the lovely Shropshire hills as a backdrop..
This part of the vineyard was also on what was a Roman fort here - Pentreheyling fort and 2 Roman marching camps! As part of the new build here, there had to be an archaeological dig which uncovered a lot of Roman artefacts now displayed... a really interesting story...
..and one piece of Roman samian ware, below has a picture of a hare which the Fergusons have developed into a bit of a "brand" - strangely they had done that before they found the pot as they had seen hares playing in their fields!
Once we had looked around the vines we went upstairs to a state of the art presentation room and heard more about the history and experiences - with the view over the vineyard to the hills beyond.
The tasting took place here and was very professional. Not only did we learn about the vines and how to grow them in a very fun way......they do take a lot of pruning... and would reach the sun if not stopped it seems!
But we also had suggestions of how best to taste - really impressed. We tasted 4 wines: Summer Days 2014 - a medium dry white, Seren Star 2014 - a medium white, Rare Hare 2013 - a medium dry rose and Red Denarii 2013 - a dry red.
Of those my favourite on the day was Summer Days - a really crisp and refreshing white. The red was fruity and tasty but not full bodied. However, in December, they are releasing a new red which has been oaked - Red Kite so we are now excited to go back in December and get a couple of bottles!!
All in all this was a really exceptional tour - Geoff also had the odd quote of note, for example: You have to let red wine breath but if there are any problems with it, just give it mouth-to-mouth.....Bit silly but fun!
We returned home armed with further "samples": Red Denarii, Summer Days and a bottle of sparkling Offa's Choice - a must for Christmas we thought having walked the Path this year - as good a reason as any!
It was a wonderful drive home through the autumn countryside..
..and hoping we can fit in a few more Sassy trips like this before the year is over!
Watch this space..
No comments:
Post a Comment