On Saturday we had the honour of helping Sophie Evans complete the first harvest on her own single hectare parcel of vines just outside of Ashford.
It was a thrill to see her in her element, surrounded by family and friends, at the end of an interesting year and the beginning of a very exciting journey.
Battles with birds and a backpack sprayer had led to slightly smaller yields than she was anticipating this year, but this little parcel of 10 year old vines is in very safe hands with Sophie at the helm.
A beautiful Autumnal day, with one of the better lunches we've ever been treated to mid-harvest, here's hoping the energy and love present through the pick makes it's way into the wines. Fermentations are underway and showing great promise, we can't wait to see how this debut vintage turns out. Congratulations Sophie!
Here's how the final day of harvest unfolded:
Across the hectare planted over clay, Sophie has a smaller, older parcel co-planted with Pinot Noir, Bacchus, Pinot Gris and Reichensteiner, which she assumes was planted as a test to see what would work well. Five years later the rest of the vines were planted, with a larger mix of the same.
The older parcel had already been harvested to co-ferment as a field blend, and in the main parcel, Bacchus had been mostly lost to mildew. Pinot Gris was macerating for a few days for a skinsy number, which left Pinot Noir to be picked. Lots of selection required as a combination of heat, hail and birds had left some of the fruit a little battle scarred.
Pinot waits to be de-stemmed, sorted and foot-crushed. Sophie isn’t a fan of ‘stemmy’ wine, particularly with English Pinot, and hopes to avoid it if she can with her home-made de-stemmer.
Sophie and her mum prep lunch, as our George’s Baozi shows great interest in Offbeat’s Cascade.
Lunch in the vines, with special mention to winemaker (also a veg grower, and ex-chef) Emily Campeau who helped Sophie with a number of particularly winning salads, among them a Japanese potato salad, and confit lemon and garlic beans with rosemary from the garden. Still thinking about those beans.
De-stemming the Pinot!
Sophie’s mum helps to pick out any smaller stems, before a vigorous foot-crush.
Unbelievably lucky with the weather for mid-October in the South East, rain did call off play for 15 minutes. Keeping dry.
With the final fruit in off the vines, Sophie’s dad heads back to the shed with his favourite toy for harvest, a tiny tractor.
Sophie’s field blend blipping away in demijohn, as she and Emily toast the end of the harvest with a glass of La Ferme Des Sept Lunes’ Lune Rousse
Sophie’s first wines from her English harvest will (all being well) be available in about 9 months time. Until then, we have just a little left of her sublime Blauer Silvaner she made whilst working alongside Melanie & Michael at 2Naturkinder.
