After a long wait, we're thrilled to again be releasing two new wines and a 'Little Fondo' from Mark & Laura at Black Mountain, carefully assembled over a number of years on their idyllic parcel of vines in the shadow of the Brecon Beacons.
Tucked down a country lane in Herefordshire you'll first see their little green shed poking over a hedgerow. Just beyond it: three hectares of vines over red clay and loamy sandstone. Mark is really breaking ground with what's possible here on the 52nd parallel, and in the UK at large when it comes to agriculture and winemaking.
In recent years, Mark has adopted his own spin on Korean Natural Farming, and we have been blown away to see his progress, adapting the system to work with ingredients available locally.
Fermenting potatoes and soil from the woods rather than rice and sugar for the core microbial compound for treatments, swapping rice wine vinegar for local cider vinegar to make eggshell fermentations for water soluble calcium, his work prioritising soil and plant health is paying off.
Work in the shed is among the most lo-fi and careful an operation as any we've witnessed. Working with no electricity, with every task undertaken by hand, macerations are gentle, fruit is basket-pressed slowly over a number of hours. Raised in a small handful of old barrels and stainless steel tanks the resulting wines have an assertive purity, layered and alive.
Released in tiny quantities, these sparkling wines are a reflection of Mark's attentive and innovative approach to winemaking, his keen sense of balance, and a testament to their terroir.
Limited to six per customer, we have the following wines available:
AVAILABLE NOW - ALLOCATION ONLY
SPARKLING
NV 2021 - Col Fondo White - Pinot Meunier, Solaris, Siegerrebe
"70% of the blend is the last of our 2018: Pinot Meunier, pressed whole-bunch to tank for 18 months, later racked to an old barrel for another 18 months. The other 30% is a roughly even split of Solaris and Siegerrebe from 2021, crushed gently and macerated on the skins for 21 days. I blended the two into tank, and bottled them with a little fresh Pinot Meunier juice for the spark at the end of 2021 harvest, in late October." No additions, undisgorged.
NV 2021 - Col Fondo Red - Pinot Noir, Pinot Meunier
"60% of the blend is Pinot Meunier from 2019. That was really the entirety of my tiny 2019 harvest, as I got absolutely battered by mildew. It had a couple days maceration, and was pressed to barrel in November '19. The other 40% is the last of my Pinot Noir and Meunier from 2018, couple days macerating, pressed to tank for about 24 months, I blended it in with the '19 Meunier barrel in early 2021."
"When you guys visited that spring you were encouraging me to bottle it as a still as I didn't have any wine to spark it with! But I decided to experiment with mixing some local honey with a bucket from the barrel, and bottling it in May 2021 to spark secondary fermentation. I'm really pleased with the result. We disgorged in November 2022, and it's zero sulphur."
(Getting excited about the blended barrel that became this year’s Col Fondo Red)
2021 - Little Fondo - Skins: Rondo, Pinot Noir
"Little Fondo was an experiment that I've been really happy with, Rondo & Pinot Noir skins off the 2021 press, macerated with their equal weight in water for five days, settled over winter, bottled with a bit of local honey in early 2022 for secondary fermentation, then disgorged in the summer! 5% Frizzante - can't go wrong."
